How Many Times a Year Does the Longevity Fruit, the Dragon Fruit, Flower and Bear Fruit? Yield per Plant and Growing Methods

Dragon fruit, also known as red dragon fruit, is a fairly common fruit on the market. Because of its anti-aging and antioxidant properties, it is quite popular with people, and most families now like to grow it at home too. So how many times a year does a dragon fruit tree bloom? How many times does it bear fruit? How much fruit can one tree bear? How do you grow it?

Dragon fruit can bear fruit once a year and blooms 15 times. It is generally planted in February or March in spring. About 12 to 14 months after planting, it begins to bloom and bear fruit, and it can bloom 12 to 15 times a year. The fruiting period is from April to November, and the fruit ripens 30 to 40 days after the flowers fade.

How much fruit can one tree bear?

A single dragon fruit weighs 500-1000g. In the second year after planting, each column produces more than 20 fruits. In the third year it enters the full fruiting period. With a relatively high level of management, the yield can reach 2500kg/667m2.

Growing methods:

Temperature

Temperature is almost the decisive factor for dragon fruit. Its place of origin is the tropics, which makes dragon fruit a typical tropical and subtropical fruit. It is not afraid of high temperatures but is very afraid of low temperatures. The planting area 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 optimal growing temperature range is 25 to 35°C. Below 10°C and above 38°C, growth stops, and the plant resists stress through the brief dormancy unique to plants.

Soil

Dragon fruit is a plant with very strong vitality and extremely broad adaptability to soil. It can grow well in mountain land, dry land, semi-dry land, rocky mountain land, wasteland, and waterlogged low-lying land. In particular, dragon fruit grafted onto local night-blooming cereus has even broader adaptability. Although dragon fruit is highly adaptable, it still has the Ph soil environment most suitable for its growth. Generally speaking, dragon fruit grows best in neutral or slightly alkaline soil, that is, at a Ph value between 7.0 and 7.8. Therefore, for soil that has been fertilized with chemical fertilizers many times, it is recommended to use plant ash, lime, river mussel shell powder, etc. to carry out slight alkalization treatment of the soil.

Water

Dragon fruit is a drought-tolerant plant, but its growth requires fairly abundant water. If the dragon fruit growing area lacks water for a long time, dragon fruit growth will stagnate, and even the original thick fleshy stems will slowly wither. From May to November each year, dragon fruit is in its flowering and fruiting period. At this time, the dragon fruit plant needs a relatively large amount of water, especially during the fruit enlargement period, when the water requirement is greatest. It is best to keep the soil water-holding capacity at 50 to 80%. Likewise, if there is too much water in the soil, especially if oxygen is lacking, the roots will easily rot, and if the plant is flooded for more than half a day, it will die.

Light

Dragon fruit is a typical sun plant and likes warm, direct sunlight. If there is a long period of light and sufficient sunshine, photosynthesis becomes especially vigorous, the fleshy stems are thick and deep green, and there are many flowers and large fruits with a high yield. Conversely, the amount of fruit produced decreases noticeably. Therefore, it should be planted in open wasteland, especially on sunny slopes. The optimal light intensity is above 8000 lux. Light conditions below 2500 lux have a clear impact on nutrient accumulation. For relatively old branch segments, concentrated high-intensity direct sunlight, if it lasts too long, means the accumulated heat cannot dissipate, which will cause sunscald on some dragon fruit branches.

Fertilizer

In the early stage of planting, dragon fruit uses less fertilizer than many traditional fruits, but this does not mean that dragon fruit does not need various nutrients. On the contrary, because dragon fruit grows quickly and has a high yield per mu, the fertilizer needed throughout the entire growth cycle must be sufficient. In the early stage of growth, sufficient nitrogen fertilizer should be supplied to help the plant grow tall and strong quickly and produce more branches. In the middle and later stages of plant growth, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers should be applied in a more balanced way to increase the plant's photosynthesis, promote early flowering, and increase the protein and vitamin content in the fruit.