Dragon Fruit
The dragonfruit is native to Central America. According to Aztec literature, Pitahaya fruits date back to the 13th century. In Vietnam, where it is extensively grown, Pitaya fruit is known as thang loy. It is believed that the fruit was introduced to Vietnam by the French and today, the average yield per hectare is 20-25 tonnes.
Malaysia is another region where you are sure to find the dragonfruit. It was first introduced in 1999 in the Sitiawan, Johor and Kuala Pilah regions. Colombia and Nicaragua are other places where pitahaya fruit is grown for commercial purposes.
These regions attest to the fact that Pitaya cactus fruit requires a warm climate thus prospers well in semi-arid areas. Planting the fruit has very high prospects since it’s industrially used in juices, making wine and flavorings, not forgetting its medicinal value which a lot of people have grown to trust.
Growing the Dragon Fruit
Generally, the fruit needs a temperate rainfall of around 600-1300mm and a maximum temperature of 38-40 degrees Celsius. Be advised that too much rainfall leads to flower drop and the fruits will rot.
By and large, it requires a tropical climate, especially when growing for commercial purposes to have successful and fruitful plantation. Red dragon fruit featuring red skin and red flesh, pitaya fruit featuring white flesh and yellow skin and the red pitaya fruit featuring white flesh and red skin are the three most common varieties cultivated for commercial purposes. Additionally, they all feature the pitaya fruit pulp or flesh filled up with tiny black seedlings, normally eaten together with the fruit.
On the other side, if you want to grow the pitaya fruits for non commercial purposes, you can easily do that at home by using the seedlings found in the fruits that you eat, since you aren’t growing them large scale.
Getting started is quite easy, but you may be required to learn a bit more about how to grow the fruit to mellowness to produce pitaya cactus fruit successfully. Basically, both commercial and non commercial growers may find short blossoming durations and night blossoming makes pollination of your Pitaya fruit difficult. As mentioned above, successful pollination is by nocturnal creatures such as bats and moths, and a setback maybe you aren’t living in an area where these creatures are many.
The biggest challenge for the hobbyist is getting recurring successful fruitings of mature pitaya fruit cactus. Nonetheless, wherever part of the world you are, it can be fun to grow pitaya fruits. You can use cuttings or seeds; beware though that the seeds may take a bit longer.
You are likely to spot the Hylocereus undatus/ocamponis/polyrhizus in Malaysia and Taiwan and the Hylocereus, Selenicereus and Cereus genera in Vietnam, Israel and Central America. Since the demand for the dragon fruit is high, the projections of it becoming a plantation crop are very high.
While cultivating the climbing cacti, one may need wooden posts, trellis, metal rods and concrete posts to support the plants, which is not necessary while cultivating the columnar cacti. The climatic conditions of the area you are cultivating, in addition to the cultural and economic criteria will basically determine the supporting structures that you will use.
