The Dragon fruit, one of the most exotic fruits that you can grow at your farm, grow on a climbing cactus plant. The plant is tall and has moist branches where you would find the dragon fruit growing.
There are three different fruit varieties and three different dragon fruit plant variants.
The dragon fruit is also called by other names such as pitahaya, strawberry pear, cactus plant, and many more.
The fruit is succulent and has a sweet taste. Depending on the plant variant, the fruit color varies from yellow-orange skin to a hot pink outer surface with dense white flesh and black seeds.
The beautiful color and mild taste of the fruit allow you to add it to your salads, chop it raw to eat it fresh, or even add it to your smoothies or ice creams.
Returning to the dragon fruit plants, they are small in size initially, like any other plant, and many fruits can grow on a single plant. As the plant grows, it can reach a height as tall as 12 inches long.
Since plants usually yield a high quantity of fruit, you will need to take good care of them, so the weight of the fruit doesn’t make your plant fall or cause damage.
Supporting Dragon Fruit Plants
Supporting the plants get you the right satisfaction and better growth for the plants and will keep growing upwards, and the support also helps considerably with all the weight the plant has to carry by keeping the plant upright.
You can support your plants with smaller, more budget-friendly options like bamboo and wooden sticks or better and some expensive support like a trellis made up of plastic or cement or even a wood stake that can give sufficient support to the larger dragon fruit plant to grow.
Supporting the dragon fruit plant after it has reached 12 inches of height is necessary not only to maintain the plant but also to allow its continuous growth and benefit from its yield of fresh fruit rather than smashed fruits on the ground due to excessive weight on the branches,
A few things that one must know about supporting the plants are:
How To Support Dragon Fruit Plants?
Yes, you can support your dragon fruit plants with some other objects that will keep them straight and will be ensuring healthier growth for both your plant and the fruits on it. There are many ways to get support, but you need to consider the size of your plant to choose which one would be the best way to get the support that is needed.
So, a brief account of how to do it and what methods one can use to get it sorted out for their dragon fruit plants would be.
Initially, do the following things
- Determine whether your dragon fruit plant is small or large
- Know your budget
- Determine the yield of the plant and know which one to support on a priority
It is simple, and you will not need special equipment or expertise to get it sorted out. You have to ensure that you are not damaging the plant in the process, which can hurt the chances of growth.
How To Support Smaller Dragon Fruit Plants?
If your plants are smaller and have not grown much yet, a bamboo stick would serve you perfectly, and all you will need to do is tie a bamboo stick to the stem of your dragon fruit plant closely.
It will give the right support to your dragon fruit plant that it needs to grow in the vertical direction and will grow straight.
To make sure that it is working, you will need to keep the stick tight and firmly dug in the ground so that it doesn’t get inclined towards any direction, as that will change the direction of your dragon fruit plant and will start growing sideways.
Sideway growth of smaller dragon fruit is not something that you would want to have as that will not only affect the growth of your plant, but it means it will not be able to take the weight of fruits that it has to bear.
Using bamboo is one of the most convenient, budget-friendly, and easiest ways to support your dragon fruit plant.
The strength and resilience of the bamboo plant, together with its properties to not cause root rots for the dragon fruit plant, makes it one of the best choices for the small dragon fruit plant.
This resilient yet robust support will allow a good brace to your dragon fruit plant, letting it grow efficiently to yield better and more dragon fruit for you.
If you cannot get bamboo sticks to provide support, you can use wooden sticks as a substitute.
Depending on the size, width, and pot size your dragon fruit plant is potted in, you can use the wooden stick of the coinciding thickness to provide sufficient support.
It is not recommended to use treated wooden bars as they are treated with chemicals that can be toxic to the general health and growth of your dragon fruit plant.
Instead of supplementing the growth, the treated wood may halt the growth of the dragon plant, keeping you from enjoying the dragon fruit fresh off the plant.
Other than that, pressure-treated wood or wood from pine trees or redwood can also be used to provide adequate support.
How to Support Larger Dragon Fruit Plant
If the plants have grown over a significant age and size and you can feel that they are ready for the fruits to grow on them, you will need to take out the bamboo stick and build a trellis to hook up the plant.
Or the more pocket-friendly option is to keep the bamboo or wooden rod in the soil and build a tomato cage around it for additional support.
The tomato cage would cost you only around 3 to 5 dollars, which is not too much when trying to secure our medium size plants.
The latter option is better if your plant has not grown too big and is medium in height. For full-size taller plants picking up the trellis option is the best way to let the plant grow at its best growth rate yielding a significant quantity of fruits.
Support Using Trellis
The first option, the trellis, can be built of plastic or cement, and they will ensure that your plant can keep growing straight. Not only that, but they will also be ensuring that the weight of your fruit is carried rightly and the plant doesn’t fall off due to that weight.
You can design the trellis according to the style you like. Most people use plastic. However, wood, cement, and steel can also be used depending on what suits you best. Furthermore, you can choose a single pole trellis or fence trellis.
Support with Single Pole Trellis
The single pole trellis is a standard design for the dragon fruit plant support. To achieve this, a stable pole with some top support is required.
The poles can usually fit a total of 4 plants. However, it is debatable if planting the same 4 varieties is superior to planting 4 different dragon fruit plant varieties, as they may get into root competition, decreasing the growth rate of the plant and also the fruit production.
However, it is essential to supply sufficient water and nutrients when 4 plants are potted together, and this will ensure dragon fruit plants are densely spread and supported.
When the topmost branches spread out, it requires additional top pole support that can be given by a car tire or bike rim or made by oneself using plastic or wood.
So with this support, they do not bend down on their weight and adjust the branches to create a canopy-kind appearance of the plant.
When the plant is fully supported and spread, the bending branches will produce small cracks, which will, in turn, stimulate the budding and fruiting of the plant.
Support with Fence Trellis
Using the fence trellis method to support the dragon fruit plants is one of the easiest methods to go with if you have concrete dragon fruit plants.
You can make these fence trellis using wooden, plastic, or synthetic rot-free ropes. You would see a lot of large farms use this method to support their plants for better growth.
Fence Trellis is the most decent way to organize large dragon fruit plants in neat rows that have high density.
Once the branches of the plant drapes over the fence the bending branches would crack into the bud and stimulate fruit production. Ensure to support your fence with star pickets if you observe your plant growing rapidly with more branches.
Conclusion
Supporting the dragon fruit plant with simple bamboo, tomato cages, or trellis is necessary to allow the plant to grow efficiently and yield beautiful and tasty dragon fruit.
I live in Louisiana. My dragon fruit are in very large pots, but this weekend building a fence to plant them in the ground. My question is, the position they would be facing will not get complete full sun all day, but will be in bright sun light all day. We that be sufficeint enough sunlight?
Thank you