Dragon fruit or the pitaya is actually a cactus species. The plant comes from the genus Hylocereus, as the fruit usually grows at night. Tropical conditions are the best conditions to grow dragon fruits. If you are not living in a hot and dry weather, you can also grow dragon fruits in a greenhouse. You can buy pitaya or dragon fruits either plant or fruit in special nursery or via online. Here are the steps on how to grow the dragon fruits.
Things that you need:
- Pitaya or dragon fruit plant
- large sized pots
- potting soil
- water
Steps:
- Prepare a pitaya plant and cut a vine. You can also find seeds at most garden places but growing the dragon fruit using a vine cutting is the easiest way to grow them if you are not living in the most tropical location.
- Place the cut vine indoors where there is warm filtered sun. You don\’t have to add water, soil or hormones to the vine before growing.
- Plant the pitaya vine cut in a normal, large sized pot. You can use up to 25 gallons size of pot but not more than that. Make sure to use good potting soil such as a mixture of sand, peat moss, compost and vermiculite. Plant the vine into the soil about 1 to 2 inches deep.
- You can water the pitaya plant once for every two weeks. Let the soil dry between these times. The vine will grow from the root by keeping the plant in filtered sunlight with a fairly warm temperature. Other vines will start to grow after the root has formed.
Let the plant grow weeks until it reaches the weight over 10 pounds. Within this size, you will begin to see the dragon fruits beginning to populate the plate.
Additional Reading:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5122298_grow-dragon-fruit.html
Image Credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/moriza/73973058/
