7 Essential Dragon Fruit Growing Tips For Fall

Dragon fruit cacti are typically very easy to care for, but there are a few important fall growing tips that really set you up for success in the spring. If you skip these steps, your cactus may still fruit next season, but not as prolifically. Pruning, fertilizing, and disease prevention are key autumn tasks to ensure happy, vigorous plants.

While your cactus may not appear to do much in the fall, the steps you take now can make or break your growing season next year. Epic founder Kevin is obsessed with dragon fruit and has cultivated dozens of successful cacti. Here we share his essential fall care tips to ensure abundant dragon fruit harvests next season.

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Inspect Your Cacti

Start out your fall dragon fruit care with a visual inspection. Check if your stem pieces are healthy and bright green. If you recently planted cuttings, see if they are showing signs of rooting, like a resistance when you gently tug upward. 

Make sure there isn’t much spotting or disease, but if there is, follow the steps below to prevent rust spread through the winter. Make a mental note of where spots are accumulating or spreading so you can monitor closely and treat as needed.

Near the top of your plant, inspect the new growth from this season. Does it look healthy? Are the stems turgid (plump), green, and vibrant? If any pieces of the vine are dying back or showing signs of deficiency, you may need to prune or fertilize accordingly.

Shape and Structure

Dragon fruit go dormant in the fall, so it’s very important to shape and trellis plants now. There is no point in leaving a bunch of stem pieces that won’t produce in the spring. Shaping refers to training the plants upward on the trellis. Remember that this crop grows best when it vines upward for the first three to four feet of growth, then splays outward over the top of the trellis like a vining cactus tree.

Of course, this unusual growth habit requires sturdy support. Check the overall structural integrity of the trellis. Your posts should stand straight up and none of the wood should be damaged. It’s important to secure any falling pieces to protect from winter winds or damage during transport indoors. Use power tools and wood reinforcements to fix any toppling or broken parts of the trellis.

Prune Properly

Pruning ensures that the plant funnels its energy toward fruit production. In this subtropical crop, the bulk of the fruit production happens at the top of the trellis, so you want to remove any lower side branches that won’t grow flowers.

Look for any offshoots that are trying to form way down near the bottom of the plant. Fruit production happens primarily from the top shoots, so lower stems are not going to be productive. 

Use sharp, sanitized pruners to cut away lateral side shoots from lower steps. These shoots are easy to spot because they poke out from lower stems. Snip those stems away and use them as propagation material for new cacti! Lower offshoots only suck energy away from the plant’s fruiting next season. 

Quick Tip: Branching and offshoots of the vines above the square top trellis are a great sign of productivity. You want lots of side shoots to branch off the main stems and start falling over the top of the trellis. Leave these in place.  

Tie Up New Growth

If any vines are not secured to the wooden stakes, now is the time to tie them up with twine or tape. Many of the side shoots were pruned away in the previous step, but if a side shoot has gotten too large or unruly, you may want to leave it to vine upward. 

Very vigorous varieties can produce new vines during the summer that grow several feet long. There is no use in wasting the plant’s valuable energy by removing them. Use this fall maintenance tip to keep your dragon fruit vigorous yet under control.

Gently push wild vines closer to the central trellis and tie them with baling twine or string. Nursery tape can also be useful. Keep vines growing straight upward when possible. It’s best to wrap the tape around each stem juncture or ridged crevices to yield the best hold. Take care not to wrap the tape too tightly, and avoid bending or snapping the leaves.

Thin Flowers

If you’re seeing small buds forming on your dragon fruit, this fall growing tip may surprise you. It’s actually best to remove excess flower buds because they may not have a chance to actually produce fruit. Autumn buds will take 40-50 days to flower, get pollinated, and form fruit, which means they likely won’t have sufficient warm weather to reach the end of their lifecycle. Prevent winter flowering by cutting away these buds now.

Use fine-tipped pruners to snip off any floral buds at the base, and rest assured that the cactus will grow new flowers and fruits during the next growing season.

Fertilize

Fertilization is technically optional in the autumn, but dragon fruit expert Kevin still does it every year. This is because slow-release fertilizer can support your cactus throughout fall and winter. Be sure to remove any mulch, dust the product under the mulch, then replace the mulch and water generously.

Generally, a liquid organic fertilizer is ideal for the flowering and fruiting stage because it’s more bioavailable. But during the dormant months of winter, a slow-release granular fertilizer is a better option. 

Prevent Rust

Rust prevention is the final fall care tip for dragon fruit, as this is one of the most common problems with this plant. The dormant winter season can be more moist, which may mean more disease spread. Neem oil spray is the most effective way to cut back on existing infections and prevent new ones. Cactus rust is a major disease affecting this crop, and it is easy to identify with its orange spots that cover the green vines. 

Blend these in a spray bottle and coat the entire surface of your cactus stems once per week on infected plants, or once per month as a preventative method. Kevin likes to spray neem on all of his dragon fruit cacti throughout the dormant season in order to prevent new infections.

Bonus Tip: Protect From Frost in Colder Zones

If you are an ambitious cactus grower in a cold area, you will need to bring your potted specimens indoors for the winter. When it gets 45°F (7°C) or lower in your area, you must protect these tender subtropical plants. The ideal container size is about 20 inches in diameter, and you will likely need a dolly to move the heavy mature cacti indoors. 

Frost damage bursts the cells inside dragon fruit stems, causing them to turn mushy and rotten. This is detrimental to spring growth because the plants will be way behind in production compared to a protected, healthy dragon fruit.

Place the cacti near a sunny south-facing window and supplement with light if you want. Additional light is not always necessary since the cactus is mostly dormant during winter, but cold weather protection is absolutely essential.