Managing Dragonfruit

How to Grow Dragonfruit

Original planting, showing signs of serious nitrogen or iron deficiency

 I acquired some dragonfruit plants, at considerable expense from the local nursery, thinking I'd plant them along the neighbour's wall and they would grow into it and cover it up.

At the time my only experience with dragonfruit was in eating the fruit. I looked forward to the day I could eat my own. But, despite appearing to thrive by growing new shoots, my plants also went an alarming yellow colour.

I scoured the Internet, looking for a solution. Nobody else had dragonfruit that had gone yellow.

My next step was to research the growing conditions. Some sites said grow in poor soil (no problem there), and some others pointed out that dragonfruit are tropical and like rich, well-drained soil. That was more of a problem, as I had planted them along some concrete foundations into typical gutless Perth sand. No doubt the concrete is messing with the soil pH.

That buried lateral needs to go.

So I had three problems to fix: poor soil, pH, and the plant looked nothing like the lovely tall, weeping, productive plants on the Internet. Instead, it rambled, and could barely stay up. It needed to be trimmed into a manageable shape.

On checking the pH of the soil, it seemed to be a bit high (>9). I treated the soil with sulphur to bring it down. The dragonfruit likes soil with a slightly acidic pH 6.1 - 7.5 is its ideal range. 9 means it can't get the nutrients it requires, hence the yellowing.

Yellowing indicates (typically) nitrogen or iron deficiency

It may also need some nitrogen as we mulched it with bark chips. As they break down, bark chips rob the soil of nitrogen. So, I removed the bark chips and put in a heap of compost from the compost bin. I then mulched it with the bark chip/straw mulch out of the chook yard. It has been pooped on by six chooks for about four months, and so is high in nitrogen.

After about two weeks the yellowing is almost gone. I noticed, however, that on superduper hot days some burning occurred.

The next step was to turn the dragonfruit into something that looks like the pictures on the Internet.

The laterals that I removed. Note they were greening up nicely

 Taking some sharp secateurs, I snipped off all the laterals. These are sitting waiting for the wounds to callous, and then I'll plant them into pots. I'm not sure where I'll put them, but I'm sure I'll be able to squeeze them in. Dragonfruit have a very small footprint.

I hope to be harvesting fruit in two years time!

The finished product, now growing up a star picket.