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California Gardening

Dragon Fruit 9b- Livermore

6 years ago

So I bought a Dragon Fruit Cactus yesterday. Looking for some direction or advice on location, exposure, soil, pot/or-not, etc. Most web resources say they are ok in zones 9-10 outside, but then only good above 30-degrees. I have a pear cactus that gets full sun all day and no frost protection and its doing great! Taking cuttings now for more. But was wondering how growing Pitaya is different and maybe cautions about freeze, ferilizer(s) or what have you... Thanks.

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Comments (3)

stanofh 10a Hayward,Ca S.F. bay area
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
You have to protect in winter. Livermore is colder in winter then the central valley I noticed. You WILL have 20's each winter. But! the good news is I have heard of heat needy tropicals just explode in growth all summer. Some things far,far, out of the normal range. Like Poinciana and Royal palms- covered in winter- though.

It used to be rare to see them in the inner bay area. Now,they are everyplace. In ground or big pots. ALL IN FULL SUN.I do notice in winter's shortest and coldest days they will yellow...but the green returns in the heat.

You might do best with a pergola they can climb..and before they get large cover the whole thing in winter. Or,potted plants that can be moved in winter. Depends on how much production you want. A couple or.. a bagful.
lgteacher
6 years ago
The link below has a series on growing dragonfruit done by a UC researcher/small farm advisor, Ramiro Lobo. We have a field of dragonfruit (pitaya) including many different varieties at the UC research station in Irvine.

How to grow dragonfruit
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Mark, where do you live? I have tons of dragonfruit plants started from seeds..around a foot tall now and from my one year old plants. They are over the 6 ft. Trellis and growing like crazy!! I have 12 varieties and will send you some of them. I live in Florida. Just remember that it may take 6 years to get fruit from seeds and one to two years from cuttings! Big difference!
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What climate zone are you in? Dragon fruit is difficult to kill, from my experience, but I have had trouble getting it to flower and fruit. It can take full sun in southern California, but it is relatively dry here, and I have it in cactus/succulent soil so that it drains well. If it is a new cutting, I would water it only twice a week - if it rains more than that, make sure it has good drainage. How much sun do you get where you live? I've seen dragon fruit growing outdoors on Maui, and that is pretty sunny.
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It took me five years to get fruit - mine it outdoors in an extremely large pot, but it is nearly impossible to move the pot at this point, and so it might as well be in the ground. I got five flowers last year, and I only pollinated one of them successfully. You have to hand pollinate the flower (it can be self-pollinated) within a couple of hours of the flower opening - if you wait until the next morning, it will be unsuccessful. My flowers opened up about an hour after sunset, and while they stayed open until about 10 the next morning, the pollen was no longer active. I had a lot of pitaya juice on my recent trip to Brazil, and it was fantastic - I just got back last week and plan to post some photos of the botanical gardens when I get time.
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Dragon fruit is pretty hardy. I had a cutting that was unpotted for a couple of months and grew into a nice plant when I got it into the ground. I'm in zone 9b/10a (Sunset 22) and find the biggest problem with dragonfruit is scale, not temperature. If you don't get snow or frost, you can repot it or put it in the ground to save it from the soggy soil. Also take the plastic tape off that's holding two stems together. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EjoW8EkAAo
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viper75
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks guys. I bought one and will pot it in a good sized pot and see where that takes me.

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