How to Plant Dragon Fruit Cuttings + Tips

The exotic-looking dragon fruit plant is part of the cactus family. This plant produces a unique-looking flower which only blooms at night and is pollinated by nocturnal moths. It also produces a brightly colored fruit that has a similar taste to kiwi fruit and dragon fruit is used widely in fruit dishes, acai bowls, smoothies, and even in cocktails.

If you’re interested in growing and cultivating dragon fruit at home, this guide will answer your questions on how to plant dragon fruit cuttings.

How to plant dragon fruit cuttings

The dragon fruit plant is very adaptable to container growing and is fairly easy to propagate from if using stem cuttings. Learning how to plant dragon fruit cuttings is a great way to grow and cultivate your dragon fruit at home.

Dragon fruit pruning

The first step is to prune the cuttings you need from an established and larger dragon fruit plant.

Things you’ll need:

• Pruning snips: small and large-sized snips
• Gardening gloves
• Sharp cutting knife to cut the larger stem pieces

Here are the steps to get started.

1. On the main plant stem, find where the stem joins to another piece of the stem, take your pruners, and start cutting off pieces as close to the stem connection as you can.
2. When you have the number of cuttings you want, pick off any of the small aerial roots. Particularly long, thin segments with lots of aerial roots or any signs of pests will not be productive, so throw them into your compost. 
3. Try to cut stems that are around 8-12in long. If they’re longer, you’ll have to cut them down to this size with your cutting knife.
4. Remember the direction you pruned it off in. You’ll need to cut each stem and mark with an arrow the direction of growth so that you plant each cutting the right way up. This is especially important for middle stem sections, as it’s harder to see which way round to plant a cut stem if it has double-cut edges.
5. After you have finished pruning and cutting your stems to size, leave the dragon fruit cuttings to rest, dry, and heal their wounds for a couple of days. Spread the cuttings over an outside surface and leave for 3-4 days or more depending on how well they callous over.

How to root dragon fruit cuttings

The next step is to pot your new dragon fruit plant cuttings in their new environment. 

Things you’ll need: 

• Potting soil mix 
• Plant containers 
• Trowel or small spade 
• Bamboo stakes 
• Nursery tape

For growing multiple dragon fruit cuttings—ideally, 2-4 new cuttings—a 20-gal plant container is more than enough. Or you can plant each cutting in its own smaller container. 

1. Fill your plant container right up to the brim with potting soil mix. For the perfect potting soil, combine 1/3 cactus mix and 2/3 of an organic, pre-mixed potting soil that contains perlite, compost, peat moss, and other nutrients. Dragon fruit doesn’t need all cactus soil mix, just a nutrient-rich, well-draining potting soil.
2. Choose your first dragon fruit cutting for repotting and make sure you’re planting it the right way up. First, take a bamboo stake, place it next to the plant cutting as a guide, then measure it equal to the height of the cutting. Then cut the stake to size with the pruning snips.
3. Now dig out a hole a few inches deep and plant the cutting about 2in into the pot. Place the stake next to it, a little deeper than the cutting for extra stability.
4. Now using the nursery tape, wrap the tape around the cutting and the stake to secure the cutting. Nursery tape is thin, flexible, and stretchy so it’s great for securing the new dragonfruit cutting snugly to the stake.
5. Repeat this process for all your dragon fruit cuttings. 
6. Gently water them in and leave the new cuttings in a shady spot until you see some new growth on your future dragonfruit plants.  
7. Make sure to water around 1in a week, unless your dragon fruit plant is located where it can catch some natural rainfall. 
8. How long does it take to grow dragon fruit from cutting? You’ll need to wait a few weeks to a month to see growth on these new dragon fruit cuttings. On some of your dragonfruit cuttings—on the ones which are the end of the plant stem—you may start to see a new stem growing out of the growing tip, at the very top. And on the ones you have cut, you’ll start to see growth at one of the cut edges at the joints. 

How to grow dragon fruit from cuttings

Now that you’ve potted your cuttings, you need to know how to care for them and grow them into epic dragon fruit plants that will flourish for years.

Choose a balanced fertilizer

Gardening experts suggest choosing a balanced NPK fertilizer to use on dragon fruit. An NPK ratio represents the specific amounts of potash, phosphate, and nitrogen. You can either sprinkle granules or add fertilizer to your irrigation system. 

For young plants under 3 years old, fertilize with compost/manure and chelated iron/ferrous sulfate once every 2 months. For older plants, fertilize 3-4 times a year and only apply the manure or compost twice a year.

Decide on a place for your cuttings to grow

Choose where the dragon fruit plants will go for the best sun and shade options. Dragon fruit plants like a little shade, so a spot in a dry area with partial sun is ideal. Wherever you decide, ensure your dragon fruit has some natural light all day long. 

Give your new dragon fruit cuttings some support

Always have some bamboo stakes as support poles in the plant container to support the stems from bending from their weight. When stems start to grow, become too heavy, and droop, you need to secure and train the stems up to encourage vertical growth. Cut up some strips of cloth to use to secure the stems to the support stake. 

Natural climbers 

Dragon fruit stems like to climb up natural surfaces as opposed to man-made shiny or polished surfaces. So, positioning it near natural surfaces that it can climb up is helpful to its growth.

Water them right

Dragon fruit plants need more water than the average cactus usually would want, but less water than the average annual vegetable. Take care not to overwater or your plant will develop root rot. Only water 1in per week, especially if it cannot capture rainfall. 

Flowering your dragon fruit 

To get the dragon fruit flower to bloom, try “stem tipping.” Around a couple of months before you want it to start blooming, cut off around an inch or so of growth off the top of the stem, and that will force flower growth.

Grow dragon fruit at home

Growing dragon fruit at home requires some patience and some time spent on plant care, but it’s worth it when you can harvest your very own delicious, home-grown dragon fruit. 

Use your fresh dragon fruit in fruit salads, eat it with Greek yogurt and chopped nuts, add to your smoothies, or create nutritious acai bowls with it.

Shop your groceries on Instacart and get everything you need to plant and grow your own dragon fruit. Order your favorite fresh fruit and vegetables online and enjoy contactless, same-day delivery. 

Grab it now on Instacart:

Dragon Fruit (per lb)

Dragon Fruit (per lb)

Corona Branch & Stem Pruner (1 each)

Digz Garden Gloves, Polyurethane Coated, Large (1 pair)

Dr. Earth Potting Soil, Organic & Natural, All Purpose, Premium, Hand Crafted Blend (16 qt)

New Earth Organic Top Shelf Cactus Soil, Organic, (8 L)

Happy Healthy Acai Bowl (10 oz)

Happy Healthy Acai Bowl (10 oz)

Instacart

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