Growing Guides
Cultivation Notes
Practical growing advice from Simon’s own farm in Champion Lakes, WA — written from real hands-on experience, with more guides added as time goes on.
Step by Step
Guides to get you growing
Everything Simon has documented so far — with more guides being added over time.
Propagation
The two commonly used ways are, of course: Seed; and Cuttings Seed is generally only used to produce new hybrids, or if no other means of obtaining plant material is possible. This is an undesirable way of growing plants as, more often than not, the seed is a cross between two varieties and is therefore […]
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Pollination
The first thing to address with respect to pollination is that there are three types of dragon fruit, self sterile, self fertile and self pollinating. Briefly self sterile will need pollen from another variety to set fruit, self fertile will set with its own pollen but need assistance and self pollinating will set on it […]
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Fertilising
On Planting When planting your dragon fruit in the soil, it’s best to include a manure, either cow or sheep, along with compost. I use sheep manure as the little pebbles are easier to handle. If planting into potting mix, no additional fertiliser should be needed as it’s often already included in the mix. […]
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Watering & Irrigation
Dragon fruit are drought-tolerant once established, but they benefit significantly from regular watering during flowering and fruiting. Overwatering is the most common mistake new growers make — it causes root rot, which can be fatal and is often invisible until it’s too advanced to reverse. When to Water The amount of water each plant is […]
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Trellises & Support Structures
Post types and materials The ways to trellis dragon fruit I guess are only limited by your imagination. Most posts/ trellis’s are either made of wood, concrete, PVC, metal mesh or some other unconventional set up. On a lot of farms in S.E Asia they use concrete posts, probably due to their higher rain […]
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Soil & Site Preparation
Dragon fruit can be grown in pots or directly in the ground in a sunny position. The most important thing to note about soils or potting mixes is that they need to be free-draining, or the plant will rot. Growing in the Ground In Perth’s coastal areas, we deal with a lot of sandy […]
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Variety Accuracy
A note on naming accuracy
You only need to be in the dragon fruit industry for a few years to discover issues with misnaming varieties and naming varieties with varietal names already in existence.
For example, with the Isis Gold / Israel Gold / Aussie Gold issue, when doing some research, I’ve come up with 17 names with different combinations of the above names plus others — Hawaiian Gold and Thai Gold may also be the same. You’ll no doubt see claims that some are the same and others saying they’re different. With plenty of opinions about, we’ll never know the truth without a scientific DNA test.
At present there are a number of varieties that have two of the same name getting around. For example, there are two Pink Diamonds — one the size of Sugar Dragon and a larger fruit. There are two by the name of Scotts Purple, one originating at Tamborine Dragon Fruit Farm (now closed) with red flesh, and another from a large farm in Queensland with purple flesh. My belief is the TDF one is correct and the argument for the other seems to be just that it’s purple. Another example is Malaysian Purple — there’s also a large fruited “Malay Purple” and a plant with a smaller fruit similar to S8. Which are correct we’ll never know.
I do commit to posting photos of both and being as honest as I can, leaving it up to you to choose the fruit of your liking.
Terminology
Key terms explained
Pruina
Also known as farina, this is an epicuticular wax. Pruina is a powdery or farinaceous substance that can be found on a number of varieties, mainly Ocamponis and its hybrids (e.g. Tricia, El Grullo). Pruina can be easily removed, makes the plant impermeable to water, and protects the dragon fruit from solar radiation and possibly bacteria and insects.
Brix
A unit of measurement which indicates the percentage of dissolved solids — in this case sugars — to be found in the juice. It is measured using a refractometer and is widely used in the food, beverage, and agricultural industries to determine the sugar content and ripeness of fruits and vegetables. A Brix of one indicates the presence of one gram of fructose in 100 grams of solution, equating to 1% sugar by mass.
Self Fertile
As the name suggests, this variety will set fruit using its own pollen, but may need some assistance — e.g. hand pollination.
Self Pollinating
It will set fruit without any assistance at all.
Self Sterile
As its name suggests, it’s sterile to its own pollen and will need to be cross pollinated with pollen from another variety.
Questions about cultivation?
Get in touch with Simon directly — he’s happy to answer growing questions and share advice.