Dragon fruit arrives from the Cactaceae species and climbing vines. This fruit tastes sweet but tangy, and it looks glamorous with its pink skin and green scales. Its scaly appearance is equivalent to a dragon scaly. The fruit size is 6-12 cm, and its shape is oval. It reaches with a white pulp filled with black edible seeds.
It is well-known mainly in Thailand, Israel, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka, but it is growing in India. The price of pitahaya per kilogram is between 150 -250 rupees. Therefore, you can see the highest production of this fruit, where less rainfall is expected. Consequently, you can treat the dragon fruit plant as an ornamental vine and fruit-producing plant. Different names for this fruit are Pitaya, Pitahaya, Queen of the Night, Strawberry Pear, and Noble Woman worldwide.
A suitable Climate is required for Dragon Fruit.
A significant feature of these crops is that they can grow even in extreme temperatures. Dragons thrive well in poor soils but are suitable for tropical climates with 40 to 60 cm of rainfall. The temperature between 20 °C and 30 °C is considered optimistic for growing dragon fruit. If the Climate is too hot or cold for dragon fruit, you can also successfully grow a potted dragon fruit plant.
Suitable Soil – Dragon Fruit Cultivation
Farmers can produce dragon fruit in different soil, from clay to sandy loam. Yet, the ideal soil for its cultivation is sandy soil with organic matter and the best drainage system. A pH of 5.5 – 7 is best for dragon fruit farming.
Apart from this, it would help if you were well-known for the more reliable equipment and valid in dragon fruit farming when you prepare the soil. Furthermore, the tractor plays a significant role because it should be compatible with all attachments. Hence, it would help if you chose the 4wd tractor model or any other prominent model of any well-known tractor brand. These tractors help to get more yield than the 2wd tractors. However, you can find 4wd tractor price online for better tractor models.
Method of Dragon Fruit Plantation
The most common dragon propagation method is cuttings. However, you can also propagate it by seed. But the dragon seeds take a long duration and will not retain the characteristics of their mother plants. So the seed method is unsuitable if you own a commercial dragon fruit farm. Therefore, if you want the full benefits of dragon fruit cultivation, you should use the plant cuttings from the mother plant. You should use 20 cm cuttings for field planting. Also, it would help if you stacked the cuttings 2 days before planting.
Now you can plant the dragon with the mixture of dry cow dung. It would help to keep the plant-to-plant distance 2m x 2m. You will have to dig 60 cm x 60 cm x 60 cm for the size of the pits. In addition, you will need to fill these pits with topsoil and compost, including 100 g of superphosphate. You can plant about 1700 saplings on 1 acre of land.
Manure & Fertilizer
Organic fertilizer plays a vital role in dragon fruit plants’ tremendous growth and development. First, treat each plant with at least 10 to 15 kg of organic manure. After that, you need to increase the compost by 2 kg per year. It needs organic matter as well as inorganic fertilizers for good vegetative growth. The fertilizer ratio for the vegetative stage is Muriate of Urea: Potash: Superphosphate = 40:90:70 g/plant.
Along with the dragon fruit cultivation process, you must also consider the better equipment that is helpful in farming, so choose the best tractor that is effective in agriculture. However, you can choose among the popular tractor brands such as Eicher, Powertrac, Kubota, and others. And farmers can choose the better tractor according to their budget because you can find all tractor price online.
For further information on Dragon fruit cultivation in India, stay tuned.