{"id":71092,"date":"2024-03-22T14:37:02","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T07:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alternatech.net\/?p=71092"},"modified":"2024-03-22T14:37:02","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T07:37:02","slug":"propagating-dragon-fruit-from-cuttings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/propagating-dragon-fruit-from-cuttings\/","title":{"rendered":"Propagating Dragon Fruit From Cuttings"},"content":{"rendered":"
Dragon fruit, or pitaya, is a cactus fruit that tastes delicious, is nutritious, and grows well in warm-winter climates (it doesn\u2019t like temperatures below 40\u00b0 F). We\u2019ve wanted to grow it for years, but haven\u2019t had room to trellis it up a wall, because it requires support. The other day while walking past a meandering dragon fruit plant, however, we couldn\u2019t resist taking a cutting or two.\n
Dragon fruit, like many cacti, is easy to propagate. Simply trim the end and plop it in soil. But there are a few specifics to note along the way. Here\u2019s the breakdown.\n
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Dragon fruit grows in segments, so it\u2019s easy to take a cutting at one of the narrow points along a segment. But new roots don\u2019t grow well from the narrow, woody end. Cut the end off to create more surface area along the tender part of the plant.\n
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Cut at least 1-2 inches off the bottom of each piece. Discard this part.\n
While it\u2019s well-known that cactus prefers \u201ccactus mix\u201d potting soil with plenty of sand, dragon fruit actually likes regular ol\u2019 potting soil. You may want to add a little more sand or perelite to your mix, but any sandy loam potting soil will do.\n
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Two of our cuttings were fairly long, longer than the advised size of 5-6 inches. We decided to leave them long to see how it worked. We trimmed two smaller segments that were on the short side (about 3\u2033) as well (one of which had a root forming already). We\u2019ll see which does best.\n
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Dig a hole in the middle of your pot and place the cutting 2 to 3 inches deep. Backfill the soil and compress it slightly to keep the cutting upright.\n
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Water enough to moisten the soil but not saturate it. Remember, these are cactus plants. They don\u2019t need a lot of water.\n
Place the cuttings in partial shade so they can take root without stress. It may take a few weeks for them to begin generating roots. Root growth is obvious when you start to see new top growth as well.\n
Once these develop roots, we\u2019ll transplant them to larger pots next to a wall with a trellis\u2026once we figure out where. Ah, the sign of a true Gardenerd\u2013acquiring plants before you know where to put them!\n
We\u2019ll post updates as they grow. Stay tuned.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Propagating Dragon Fruit From Cuttings Dragon fruit, or pitaya, is a cactus fruit that tastes delicious, is nutritious, and grows well in warm-winter climates (it doesn\u2019t like temperatures below 40\u00b0 F). We\u2019ve wanted to grow it for years, but haven\u2019t had room to trellis it up a wall, because it requires support. The other day\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":71099,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Propagating Dragon Fruit From Cuttings","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[781],"tags":[787],"class_list":{"0":"post-71092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gardening","8":"tag-gardening"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/54-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmetalking.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}