A Detailed Guide to Growing Dragon Fruit in Pots on a Balcony

Speaking of dragon fruit, everyone is surely familiar with it. As a very good low-sugar fruit, dragon fruit holds an important place in the fruit market and is a fruit that everyone loves. Many people grow dragon fruit in flower pots at home, so they can not only enjoy it as an ornamental plant, but also eat healthy fruit they grew with their own hands. So how do you grow dragon fruit on a balcony?

1. How to grow dragon fruit

1. Buy a branch: Dragon fruit is fairly well suited to cuttings. To take a cutting, you need to prepare the cutting material. In fact, branches are now sold online, so you can buy a branch online and try growing it, or you can find a household that grows dragon fruit and cut a branch to bring home.

2. Prepare the branch: For a dragon fruit cutting, the branch is best on the longer side, as this makes it grow faster and bear fruit earlier. You can use a small knife to make a few angled cuts at the lower end of the branch so that the woody part is exposed.

3. Dry the branch: The prepared cutting can be left to dry in a cool place. In about 4——5 days, the wound will have healed.

4. Prepare the soil: When choosing soil, basically any soil that drains and breathes well will do. If you are growing it in a flower pot, it is best to use some free-draining sand, or add some sand to garden soil for planting.

5. Insert into the soil: Insert the dried branch into the soil, taking care to make sure the branch does not fall over.

6. Steady it with a stick: If, when taking the cutting, you find that the branch is rather long and tends to fall over, you can stick a wooden stick into the soil and then use tape to secure the branch to the stick.

7. Do not water right after planting: After planting, you can place the flower pot in a spot with diffused light and good ventilation, but be careful not to water it at all for one month, otherwise it will rot.

8. Routine care: Once the dragon fruit has taken root, you can water it. Be careful to give it plenty of sun, keep the temperature above 8°C, and apply some organic fertilizer, and the dragon fruit will grow quickly.

9. How to pollinate: After the dragon fruit flowers, it needs to be pollinated by hand in order to set more fruit. Generally, pollinating dragon fruit from different plants gives larger fruit. When pollinating by hand, gently sweep a cotton swab around the stamens to collect the pollen, then brush the pollen onto the pistil in the middle of another flower.

10. Harvest the fruit: Once the dragon fruit has set fruit, you can cover it with a mesh bag to keep out insects. When the fruit turns red, you can pick it!

2. Watering methods

1. Based on soil moisture: For growing dragon fruit, watering is one of the main factors directly related to its survival. Watering should follow the rule of watering when the soil is on the dry side. This "on the dry side" only means the surface of the soil is on the dry side, not that the whole pot of soil is on the dry side. If the surface soil still looks somewhat moist, then there is no need to water. You must wait until the surface soil is on the dry side before watering.

2. Do not use too much water: Some people like to give their plants a bit of water every day when they look at them. They are not you, and they do not need to drink every day. Doing this will send them to their death. When the soil is too moist, it causes the plant's roots to rot. When watering, the amount of water should not be too large; avoid water flowing out of the drainage holes of the flower pot. It is very afraid of waterlogging and flooding, so you must control the amount of water well. But if the surface soil is already on the dry side, then if you do not water in time, the plant will also slowly wither.

3. Timing of watering: Do not set a fixed schedule for watering. You must observe the condition of the soil surface. For example, on cloudy or rainy days, you can delay watering.

4. Points to note: When fertilizing, also follow the same approach as watering, and combine it with watering. Only fertilize when the soil surface is on the dry side, and on cloudy or rainy days likewise delay the timing of fertilizing.

3. Fertilizing methods

1. Choosing fertilizer: Combine organic and inorganic fertilizers. As for the form of the fertilizer, liquid fertilizer is most suitable.

2. When to fertilize: The fertilizing frequency for potted dragon fruit is roughly the same as for ordinary plants. Fertilize more during growth, flowering and fruiting, and reduce fertilizing as much as possible, or simply stop, in winter and during the dormant period.

3. Fertilizing principles: The fertilizing method used for potted dragon fruit is what we commonly call applying light fertilizer frequently. During the flowering and fruiting periods, in order to set more fruit and improve fruit quality, fertilizing should focus mainly on phosphorus and potassium fertilizers to promote flowering and fruiting.

4. Growth period: Focus mainly on nitrogen fertilizer, combined with other fertilizers, but be careful to control the amount when fertilizing to prevent excessive fertilizer from causing the plant to grow leggy, which can lead to the plant not flowering or setting little fruit.

5. In winter: The temperature is on the low side. At this time most plants show slow growth, and their physiological activity drops noticeably. At this point you should adjust the fertilizer appropriately, reduce fertilizer supplementation, or simply stop. Applying fertilizer at this time not only fails to provide nutrients to the plant, but is also very likely to damage the plant's root system, so you must pay extra attention.

4. Pruning techniques

1. Pruning young seedlings

You should start thinking about pruning from the seedling stage. The main task is to remove excess branches. If these excess upward-growing branches are not pruned in time, they will take up some of the water and nutrients, causing all the branches to fail to get enough water and nutrients and become thinner, so that at the flowering stage they cannot form flower buds and therefore cannot bear fruit. When pruning it, choose the more robust, thick branches to keep, and cut off all the rest. This lets the robust, thick branches get more sufficient water and nutrients, laying the groundwork in advance for flowering and fruiting. Prune young seedlings about once every 10 days.

2. Pinching pruning

When the plant grows to a height of 10 cm, you can pinch it. But this pinching is not the ordinary pinching done to other plants; you need to use a sharp knife to cut flat across the top of the plant, so that the wound left is smooth. The pinching position is best chosen at 5 cm to 6 cm on the plant. It is not recommended to break it off directly by hand, as this will cause unnecessary damage to the plant and also greatly affect the healing of the wound.

3. Pruning branches

These branches refer to the branches of the plant when it flowers. Keep those that flower well and are thicker and more robust, and prune the rest. At this point many gardening friends worry that pruning will affect the number of fruits, but not pruning at this time will cause the quality of all the fruits to decline.