How to Grow Dragon Fruit at Home: A Detailed Guide to Home Cultivation Methods
The dragon fruit plant is quite ornamental and can be grown as a potted plant, which has its own special charm. So how do you grow dragon fruit at home? Let's take a look together.
1. Obtaining Seeds
First, scoop out the flesh of the dragon fruit and put it in a silk cloth, add an appropriate amount of water to dilute it, then gently rub it with your hands to separate the flesh from the seeds. Soak it in cold water, and the next day continue rubbing to separate the flesh completely. You can also simply buy dragon fruit seeds from the market.
2. Flower Pot
Dragon fruit is a shallow-rooted plant. Prepare a clay pot, and drill a drainage hole in the bottom. If you don't have a clay pot, a wooden box will also do, as long as it has good air permeability. It's best not to use plastic or containers that are too airtight. Before planting dragon fruit, soak the pot in clean water for a few hours so that the foul gases in the pores of the pot wall are released, otherwise it will affect the root growth of the plant.
3. Sowing
To plant dragon fruit, first find some neutral or slightly acidic soil, which must be loose and breathable. Alkaline soil is not suitable for cultivation. You can also make your own potting soil by mixing leaf mold, manure soil, and coarse river sand in a ratio of 6:1:1.
Sprinkle the dragon fruit seeds on the soil, spray an appropriate amount of water, then cover with plastic film to keep the soil and air moist. Keep the temperature at around 22 degrees, and they will germinate in a week.
4. Cultivation and Management
Dragon fruit has good drought tolerance, so you don't need to water it too frequently, but you should keep the soil moist. Water once a week with an organic fertilizer solution mainly based on nitrogen fertilizer, which can be diluted. If lateral buds grow on the stems and branches, remove them and keep the terminal buds, so that the plant can grow taller. When the plant height reaches about 1 m, cut off about 3 cm of the stem tip at the top. This will encourage lateral branches to grow from the top, and it will no longer grow upward. When the top lateral branches grow to about 50 cm, place bamboo poles around the edge of the pot at the same height as the plant, tie a crossbar to the top of the bamboo poles, and tie the lateral branches to the crossbar so that they extend flat or droop naturally. When the lateral branches exceed 80 cm, cut off about 3 cm of the stem tip to reduce nutrient consumption, promote flower bud differentiation, and make it bloom and bear fruit earlier. With good management, it will bloom after 7-8 months.
Growing dragon fruit at home can beautify the environment, but you need to pay attention to the temperature. If the temperature is too extreme, the dragon fruit may die.