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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-484
Dragon Fruit
Hylocereus undatus
Dragon Fruit is a climbing epiphytic cactus from Mexico and Central America, grown for the sweet, mild, white-fleshed fruit sold as pitaya, plus a food-forest role as a hedge and living trellis climber. Its flowers open for one night only and are night-pollinated, so away from its native pollinators hand pollination after dark is usually the reliable way to get fruit. Winter cold is the hard limit - a freeze kills the whole plant outright with no crown left to resprout from - so anywhere winters freeze it only works in a large tub on a post, moved under cover for winter and set back out in full sun through the warm months.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 10–11
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Dry · Well-Drained
Vertical layer
Vine- Soil pH
- 6.1–6.7
- Plant type
- Vine
- Mature height
- 8–20 ft
- Mature spread
- 3–10 ft
- Plant spacing
- 8 ft
- Root type
- Fibrous-shallow
- Spread pattern
- Root
Keep exploring
Similar plants
Discover more plants with shared forest layers or growing conditions.
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Cyclanthera pedata
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African Walnut
Plukenetia conophora
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Banana Passionfruit
Passiflora tarminiana
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Betel
Piper betle
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Bitter Melon
Momordica charantia
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Bottle Gourd
Lagenaria siceraria
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The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
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