Dragon Fruit Plant Growth Stages | From Seed to Harvest

Dragon fruit is one of the delicious fruits with an exotic appearance that every gardener wants to grow in their home garden. But to be successful, you need to understand its growth stages.

The dragon fruit plant growth stages include germination, seedling, flowering, fruit, and harvesting. Each stage needs and requires proper care for watering requirements, fertilizing, pest management, etc.

Don’t worry. In the article below, I explain the dragon fruit plant growth stages from seed till start growing fruits, along its caring tips, so without wasting any time, let’s get to it.

Dragon Fruit Plant Growth Stages

The dragon fruit, also known as pitaya, or pitahaya, is a cactus-type plant that normally grows in tropical regions. It has tall plants with vibrant colors flowers that turn into soft fruits. Just other plants, the dragon fruit went through certain stages which you need to understand to grow healthy and juicy dragon fruits.

Below, we explain each of its growth stages with tips for proper care. So, let’s hop into it.

Germination Stage:

The journey of dragon fruit starts with germination, a process with sprouting a spore, seed. Germination is the base process of every plant growth, including dragon fruit. Depending on climate and other environmental factors, the germination process takes about  1 to 3 weeks. To successfully germinate, use proper drain soil at a temperature between 70 to 90F (21 to 32C). Humidity plays a very important role in dragon fruit germination, and for creating humidity you need to covers the seeds in both pots or clay to trap the heat and make it humid.

There are other key things that I do to get successful in germination and I would advise you to follow it too.

• First of all during germination the seeds doesn’t need water but instead they need moisture, so avoid watering it too much.
• Provide proper light to your dragon fruit seeds, but not too much because it’s not good at this stage.

Related: Onion Growth Stages.

Seedling Stage:

The next stage after germination of any plant, including dragon fruit, is seedling, in which you will see a tiny plant start to emerge from the soil with a tiny leaf. The duration of the seedling stage is between 1 month and two months. In this stage, the dragon fruit develops leaves resembling cactus spines.

Caring Tips:

You need proper care in this stage because the seedlings are delicate and can be damaged easily, even with strong winds. Other than that, proper water the seedling just to moist its soil. You also need to add lite fertilizer to speed up its growth.

Vegetable Growth Stage:

In dragon fruit growth stages, the vegetable growth stage is consider longest stages and also crucial stages for future fruit. This stage usually stretches to a couple of months, in which the plant mostly focuses on growing its main stem and branches.

In this stage, the dragon signature climbing stem starts to develop and needs support to grow vertically. So you should provide support like a structure or trellises to help the dragon fruit climb vertically.

Fertilization and Watering:

Dragon fruit are very good against drought due to its drought resistance quality but still they need consistent watering for stem and branches growth. You should water your dragon fruit once every two weeks in normal condition, but you can increase that when its soil getting dry. Other than that, use balance fertilizer every 5 to 7 weeks to increase and speed up its growth.

Caring Tips:

In this stage the dragon fruit become a target for pest like aphids and mealybugs that can do some serious damage to your plants. So first, you should introduce any beneficial insects like lady bugs that will help you reduce their population. You can also use lite insecticides spray because they can affect your plants’ health and growth.

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Flowering Stages:

The next growth stage in dragon fruit is the flowering stage, in which the dragon fruit starts to grow flower, obviously. It has a very beautiful white flowers that usually blossoms at night. The flower of dragon fruit is about 12 inches long. It attracts bats and moths for pollination, but you can also do it by hand, especially if you plant it indoors.

Caring Tips:

For caring dragon fruit at flower stages you need to keep an eye for pest like beetles and ants because its flowers may attracts those as well. You must also add or increase the potassium intake in fertilizer to improve and speed up the dragon fruit flowering stage.

Fruiting Stage:

After the pollination, the fruit stage starts in the dragon fruit. The dragon fruit takes about 30 to 40 days to mature, and you can harvest it.

Signs of Ripening:

To know that dragon fruit is getting ripened, the dragon fruit will turn red or bright pink. Its skin will also turn soft, but not too much.

Caring Tips:

During the fruiting stage, make sure to keep pest away from it because it can affect its fruit growth. Also, over-fertilizing and overwatering should be prevented because they affect not only fruit growth but also its quality.

Harvesting Stage:

The harvesting is likely the last stage of dragon fruit growth circle. The harvesting of dragon fruit is simple, just start plucking the ripen fruits and keep it in basket. It its hard to pluck or picking then you can cut it off the stalk. Then you can store it in your refrigerator for couple of weeks.

Below is a video of dragon fruit time laps that will walk you through some of its stages.

Dormancy Stage:

Just like other plants, dragon fruits also go into dormancy, especially during cooler months like winter. At this stage, the care is to reduce watering and stop fertilizing completely because the plant has stored enough energy for the next season. You should also protect your dragon fruit from frost during those cold nights.

Conclusion:

Growing dragon fruits needs proper care and a lot of attention. To grow proper dragon fruit, you must know and understand its growth stages, from germination to dormancy.

I hop you understand the growth stages of dragon fruits but if you still have any question then feel free to ask it in comment section.