If the plant is still small (under 18 inches), you need to stake it with a bamboo stick, wood stick, or something long you can find that will help the plant grow upwards without tipping over. If over 18 inches it is recommended that you build a proper trellis for your dragon fruit so that they can have space to grow and support to grow.
Soil: Though dragon fruit are a cactus, they are a tropical cactus. This means your traditional cactus mix from Lowe’s or Home Depot may not always be appropriate. Ideally, Paul Thomson (who wrote the Pitahaya bible) suggests using sandy loam that is quick draining with an organic composted top dress. If you don’t know what that is, then you want a soil that retains some moisture for short period of time while also being quick draining. The last thing you want is for your roots or stem to rot from the water sticking around for too long. A lot of people use chicken manure as a top dress because it's high in nitrogen and because it's relatively cheap. The nitrogen will help stimulate growth in your dragon fruit. It does come with its drawbacks however. I have found pests that eat at my roots as a result of chicken manure. So, just be careful.
Watering: The general guideline is to check the soil with your fingers down to about two inches into your soil. If the soil is dry, that’s a good time to water. If it’s still wet, then don’t over water the pot to prevent root rot.
Sunlight: Place your new cutting in the soil and place the pot in a shaded area of your yard for approximately 2 weeks before slowly introducing it to sunlight again. Start introducing the plant at 2 hours per day for the first few days and then increase by 2 hour increments after that. If it starts to get yellow, you’re going too fast. If it’s growing all skinny like before Steve Rogers got his Capt America shot, you’re not giving it enough light. At the end, most dragon fruit plants require at least 6 to 8 hours of full sun per day to be healthy.
Trellis: As your plant grows and ages, most growers will recommend you create an umbrella canopy. Though research shows that this is not completely necessary for fruiting (there’s more than one road to Oz), most want to recreate some version of this form because it is the cleanest and most efficient way to grow dragon fruit. I’ve seen many different versions of the trellis and all work great for their grower’s unique styles. Do some research before you build your own. There’s tons of examples on Youtube and some even show you how to build it the way that they built it.
Potting: The general consensus is that each plant will still do fine in about 5 gallons of soil for most of its lifetime. If you're building a trellis, the common practice is to build one for a 20 gal or 25 gal pot while placing 4 plants in the pot (4x5 gals = 20 gals). Some prefer to keep the pot completely the same variety. Others choose to mix the pot for space considerations. You'll find that 4 varieties are never enough. Therefore, having 60 varieties in 15 pots is much more manageable than 60 varieties in 60 pots, all 20 gallons each. The general rule is that you want to mix the varieties that have similar or same growing requirements with regard to sun requirements, watering requirements, and aggressiveness of the root development. The last thing you want is for one of your varieties in the pot to constantly suffer sunburn while the other variety is getting etiolated (skinny and long). All the while, the third variety is getting crowded out due to the other plants being more aggressive.
In the meantime, you’ll want to cut off any new growths from the lower parts of the plant and allow 1 or 2 new branches to continue the main stem up to the top of your trellis. Ideally, 1 growth will grow faster than 2 of them. However, I like to keep 2 until I know my #1 option is the right one (fastest growing and most healthy). I also have a snail problem where I live so if I keep two and 1 gets the tip eaten by a snail, I still have a backup. I’ll tip the 2nd one and let it grow for a while before I cut it for a new cutting once they’re fat enough. Any side growths left uncut will only suck growing energy from your top branches and delay your progress to the top.
Once the plant reaches the top of your trellis, you can cut the tip of the main stem after it is about 6 inches from the top (I like to let it grow closer to 10 inches just for good measure). This will stop the upward growth and force the plant to push out growths from the sides. Instead of letting the plant spray out growths everywhere, you’ll want to focus the energy on 4-6 growths from the main stem. Each one of those growths should be allowed 3 new growths for a total of 18 branches per plant to create your umbrella at the top.
Fruiting: Once your dragon fruit tree is mature enough, it will start to flower and fruit. You need a few conditions for this to happen a) plant maturity, b) soil nutrition and c) temperature. a) If your plant isn’t mature, no matter how much fertilizer you provide, it probably won’t fruit. There are exceptions to everything, but that’s the basic rule. b) For soil nutrition, many like to use a fertilizer higher in phosphorus to induce flowering at the start of the growing season. Many prefer organic over synthetic fertilizers. At the end of the day, phosphorus still has to break down in the soil to become phosphorus, organic or not. c) Temperature has to stay above 70F typically if you want the plant to push out flower buds. If it’s colder than that, most plants will mutate the flower bud back into a branch and it’ll turn out funky with too many sides (initially).
Pollination: There are self-fertile, self-sterile and self-pollinating varieties. Self-pollinating varieties tend to also be self-fertile. Self-fertile means that you can use the pollen of one plant to successfully pollinate the same plant and develop a viable fruit. For the self-sterile varieties, you will need a second dragon fruit plant that is not too closely related to your first variety in order to successfully pollenate your dragon fruit flower, which only opens at night time for 1 night. We call that cross-pollination. Pollination can occur from natural vectors such as moths that work in the night. Most growers hand pollinate each flower themselves to ensure that a fruit is set. (Buy yourself a headlamp and a small brush. You will come to cherish it almost as much as your fruit). You’ll want to brush some pollen from the anthers (for self-fertile varieties) or collected pollen from another variety (for self-sterile varieties) onto the stigma. Please see here. If pollination is successful, a fruit will grow from the base of the flower and be ready anywhere between 30 to 70 days for most varieties (weather may increase or decrease that number depending on where you live) and 6 or 7 months for the yellow varieties.
Some common issues you might encounter:
Pests - Aphids and Spider mites - You can mix a small spoonful of dish soap with water into a spray bottle and just blast those suckers away.
Snails or Slugs - They like to eat the soft tips of new growths and can be a pain when you're trying to grow a new cutting. I've found that iron phosphate works on them. Others will suggest pouring some beer into a bowl and placing the bowl partial submerged into the ground. The party animals will be attracted to the beer and drink themselves to death.
Root or Stem Rot - Cut off the rotted part (and then a little more). General advice is to place some cinnamon powder on it or spray a 1:1 mix of hydrogen peroxide and water on the infected parts. This will help stop the spread of the rot.
Sunburn - There are two types of sunburn. Minor and Major. Minor sunburn won't affect your df plant too much. It may slow it a little while it heals but it will heal fine. Major sunburn will result in the flesh rotting and having to be cut off (see #3 above) Either cover your plant with some burlap or shade cloth (pretty much anything you can find to give it some shade - a neighbor of mine used newspaper when temps hit over 100F. The other option is to move it to a new location that provides shade for a part of the day.
Cold damage - Some people will suggest placing a cover over the plant, either clear plastic sheeting or burlap. Again, use your own discretion here. Then heating the plant at night with xmas lights. Dragon fruit can tolerate temperatures down to about 40F but if it stays there for too long, or too many days, the cumulative effect of the cold will still create harsh damage. If you're not in a temperate growing zone, this would be a good time to move your plants into the garage for the winter.
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