How to Make Dragon Fruit Sweeter and Bigger? A Detailed Guide to Cultivation and Management Methods

Most dragon fruit on the market is large and sweet, but some growers do not get fruit as good as expected. Today let us briefly understand how to sweeten dragon fruit and enlarge it.

To grow dragon fruit with a sweet taste and large fruit, improvements can be made from the following aspects.

1. Moderate and Reasonable Fertilization

Dragon fruit has relatively high nutrient demands during its growth period, so reasonable and effective fertilizer supply must be ensured to make dragon fruit produce large and sweet fruit. Applying fertilizer well ensures that the fruiting stems develop robustly, which is the foundation for good fruit. When fertilizing, use a complete fertilizer of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as the main input; to ensure nutrition keeps up, trace elements can also be supplemented. You can dig a ring-shaped trench around the plant roots at a certain distance and spread fertilizer in it, or add fertilizer to water and pour it onto the soil around the roots. During flowering and fruiting of dragon fruit, foliar spraying of fertilizer can also be carried out to promote sugar accumulation in the fruit.

2. Improve Soil Condition

Before planting dragon fruit, we should first prepare the planting site; here we choose slightly acidic soil of normal thickness and fertility that is soft and suitable. If soil improvement is needed, shallow plowing can be carried out and the amount of microbial fertilizer increased.

3. Reasonable Irrigation

During the sprouting and fruiting stages of dragon fruit, the soil as a whole should be kept moist. However, do not sprinkle water or carry out prolonged flooding irrigation; sprinkling water makes humidity uneven and induces red spots, while excessive water accumulation causes root oxygen deficiency and death. In winter, the orchard should have water controlled to enhance the cold resistance of the branches.

4. Adjust Temperature Balance

As a tropical fruit, dragon fruit is very tolerant of high temperatures, but to produce good fruit it needs to be provided with a relatively good growing temperature; during its growth period we maintain the temperature at 25-35°C, with the nighttime temperature kept at 15°C. At night dragon fruit stops photosynthesis and instead begins respiration; dragon fruit respiration consumes photosynthetic substances. A large day-night temperature difference inhibits dragon fruit respiration, causing its nutrient consumption to decrease, so its sugar content rises. We can use this point to sweeten and enlarge the fruit.

5. Regulation of Other Factors

Ensure dragon fruit receives sufficient light and improve overall air permeability. During the flowering and fruiting period, thin flowers and fruit of dragon fruit to prevent the amount of flowers and fruit from exceeding what the dragon fruit plant can bear. Weeds that compete for nutrients must be removed completely. Finally, do a good job of pest and disease prevention and control.

The above are several requirements for how to sweeten and enlarge dragon fruit. We hope everyone will carefully care for the plants during the growing process, so that excellent dragon fruit can certainly be grown.