How long do pitaya (dragon fruit) seeds take to germinate, and how many years until they fruit? How do you grow them?

Pitaya, also known as jade dragon fruit or green dragon fruit, is a tropical fruit commonly found in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and other places. Many people plant the black seeds inside it in flower pots after eating it. So how long do pitaya seeds take to germinate after sowing? How many years until they fruit? How do you grow them?

1. How long do pitaya seeds take to germinate?

Pitaya seeds do not need to be soaked in water; sow them directly and they germinate very well. Generally they sprout 3~4 days after sowing. When sowing, no soil cover is needed, but the seeds should be in full contact with the soil as much as possible. Generally, sowing requires a plastic film cover to maintain humidity and temperature.

2. How many years until pitaya seeds fruit?

After planting, pitaya begins to flower and fruit 12~14 months later. It can flower 12~15 times a year, with the fruiting period from April to November. The fruit ripens 30~40 days after the flowers fade, and a single fruit weighs 500~1000 grams. In the second year after planting, each column produces more than 20 fruits, and by the third year it enters the full fruiting period, with a yield of up to 2500 kg per mu.

3. How do you grow pitaya seeds?

1. When should the seeds be sown?

Pitaya can be planted in all four seasons, but it must not be planted deep; planting about 3 cm deep is enough, and the soil should be kept moist in the early stage. After planting, it begins to flower and fruit 12~14 months later. It can flower 12~15 times a year, with the fruiting period from April to November. The fruit ripens 30~40 days after the flowers fade, and a single fruit weighs 500~1000 grams. In the second year after planting, each column produces more than 20 fruits, and by the third year it enters the full fruiting period. With a higher level of management, the yield can reach 2500 kg per mu.

2. What are the high-yield cultivation techniques for pitaya?

(1) Seedling emergence. Evenly sprinkle the seeds into a flower pot with soil, and sprinkle some water on top. Note that you must not pour water directly. Then cover it with plastic wrap, and remember to uncover the plastic wrap every other day and spray water with a spray bottle. In less than a week, the seeds begin to germinate, and at this point you can remove the plastic wrap covering them. When the seedlings have grown to a certain size, start planting them separately.

(2) Planting methods: Pitaya can be planted in many ways. It can be grown up a wall or under a trellis, but column-style cultivation is the most common, with the advantages of low production cost and high land utilization.

(3) Planting spacing: For pitaya using double-season columns, the plant-to-row spacing is 1.5×2 m. Calculating 4 seedlings planted around each column, 750 plants can be planted per mu. But note that it must not be planted deep; planting about 3 cm deep is enough, and the soil should be kept moist in the early stage.

(4) Reasonable interplanting: Red-fleshed pitaya has poor self-compatibility, a low fruit set rate from self-pollination, small fruits and poor market quality, and needs pollination by white-fleshed pitaya. Interplanting about 10% white-fleshed pitaya can significantly increase the fruit set rate.

3. Growing conditions:

(1) Temperature: Pitaya is not afraid of high temperatures but fears low temperatures. It requires an annual average temperature of no less than 18°C, an average January temperature of no less than 8°C, and an extreme low temperature of -3°C lasting no more than 6 hours. The optimum growing temperature is 25~35°C. Growth stops below 10°C and above 38°C.

(2) Soil: Pitaya is extremely adaptable to soil and can grow well in mountainous land, dry land, semi-dry land, stony mountain land, wasteland and waterlogged low-lying land. This is especially true for pitaya grafted onto local night-blooming cereus, which is even more adaptable.

(3) Water: Pitaya is a drought-tolerant plant, but its growth requires fairly abundant water. If the pitaya planting site lacks water for a long time, pitaya growth will stall, and even the original thick fleshy stems will slowly wither.

(4) Light: Pitaya is a typical sun-loving plant and likes warm, direct sunlight. If the light duration is long and the sunlight is sufficient, photosynthesis is especially vigorous, the fleshy stems are thick and deep green, and there are many flowers and large fruits with high yield. Otherwise, the fruit yield decreases noticeably.

(5) Fertilizer: Pitaya grows quickly, and the fertilizer needed throughout its growth cycle must be sufficient. In the early growth stage, enough nitrogen fertilizer should be supplied to help the plant grow tall and strong quickly. In the middle and late growth stages, a balanced application of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizer should be used more often to increase the plant's photosynthesis.

4. How do you shape and prune the plant?

(1) Seedling stage: During seedling growth, side branches sprout. One strong upward branch should be retained, and the other side branches should be cut off promptly, so as to concentrate nutrients to let the strong branch climb up quickly.

(2) Growth stage: When the plant grows to 1.5 m tall, let it produce more than 3 naturally drooping branches. After the branches mature and during the period from April to November, these drooping branches have the chance to flower and fruit. According to observation, the upper and middle branches, especially the drooping branches, have a higher rate of flowering and fruiting, while the middle and lower branches rarely flower. From the analysis of branch distribution, the growth vigor of the upper branches is usually greater than that of the middle and lower branches, which may be due to apical dominance. However, because the upper branches are positioned high and are also inconvenient to tie, although their growth vigor is strong, their mechanical tissue strength is poor and they are often easily broken by wind. The upper branches can gradually be supported, pulled, hung and tied with the methods of propping, pulling, hanging and tying. After the branches mature and begin to flower, gradually let them droop to reduce wind damage.

(3) After fruiting: For each plant, 2/3 of the branches can be arranged as fruiting branches, and the other 1/3 of the branches can have their flower buds or flowers removed, their branch growth angle reduced, their vegetative growth promoted, and they can be cultivated as strong reserve fruiting branches. If some plants bear more fruit, the possibility of forming a large number of concentrated flowering branches the next year is relatively small. After the plant base forms a large number of strong branches, thinning can be used to remove the weak and keep the strong, or the weaker branches can be cut back to encourage them to develop into strong vegetative branches.

(4) After fruit harvest: Replanting and pruning should be carried out, that is, dig out individual plants with weaker growth and replant new seedlings, cut off the top or weak branches that have already borne many fruits, and let the remaining thick branches grow new shoots again, so as to ensure the yield and quality of the coming year.