Dragon fruits cultivation in Malaysia Zainudin Haji Meon (PhD) Horticulture Research Center MARDI , P.

O Box 12301 Kuala Lumpur (email:zmeon@mardi.my) Introduction Malaysia is blessed with good tropical climate. Many crops can be grown here like rubber, oil palm, paddy and cocoa besides fruits. One of the most recent newcomers in the Malaysian fruit industry is dragon fruits. After many trials and errors, dragon cultivation has made its way in the Malaysian fruit industry. Unlike Vietnam and Thailand which had long history of dragon fruit growing, Malaysia is keeping good pace to lead its niche market due to high demand locally. The local name for dragon fruit is buah naga or buah mata naga. In Malaysia, the scale for dragon fruit crop is very small which is about 300 hectares compared the other crop however, the rate of expansion is increasing tremendously. The dragon fruit growing areas are in the states of Johor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Pulau Pinang and Sabah. Variety They are three varieties of dragon fruits grown in Malaysia namely; white flesh dragon fruits (Hylocerues undatus), red flesh dragon fruit (Hylocereus polyrhizus) and yellow skin dragon fruit (Selenicereus megaalenthus). However, there was 2 varieties that suitable planted in Malaysia i.e red and white flesh variety. The red flesh variety is the most popular due to its high price at RM 8.00 (USD 2.00) per kg compared to white at RM 5.00 per kg (USD1.50). Dragon fruit is in oval shape, red colour and mature size was between 10-15 cm and it weight between 300 to 500 grams. It has sweet to light sour taste and has many tiny black seeds. These seeds can be eaten. Yellow dragon fruits has in small size and weight average between 100 gram and it is very sweet. Dragon fruit has been reported to be a long day plant. It belongs to the Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM) species which means that it only opens their stomata at night for carbon dioxide intake. Dragon fruit plants is an epiphytic where it needs pillars to support it soft stems and branches. Nutrients value and its use Dragon fruit was rich in vitamin and mineral that can help improved body metabolism. It is good for our digestion and blood circulation. Reports have shown that dragon fruits had positive respond to reduce high blood pressure and neutralize toxin in the body. Red flesh dragon fruit has high antioxidants content which had high medical value. Apart from fresh consumption there are numerous downstream products which had been processed such jams, cordial, wine etc. In the southern state of Johore young dragon fruits shoots has been cooked as dishes and its dry flowers were consumed as tea.

Planting Dragon fruits are easy to grow however it needs support or stake to stand on. Its succulent stems are tender and branches upwards. Long and mature branches also needs support to rest on before flowering commences. The soil must be good condition such as sand soil and sand loam soil because their have rich an organic material for growing Dragon fruit can be cultivate by it seed or cuttings. Cuttings from an accredited nursery to ensure good variety which is free of disease. The planting materials nust be proven good in terms of yield and performances. The red flesh variety can be easily be identified from the stem skin colour and the internodes. Red flesh colour had dark green skin colour compared to the white ones, while the internodes hade higher shoulder with fine sharp torns. Good selection of cutting is important so that yield obtained is good. In Malaysia dragon fruit cuttings of 10 (25.4 cm) to 20 (50.8 cm) are used for planting. Four such cuttings are needed per stake. A planting distance of 2 (inter row) X 3 (intra row) meter is used which makes up to 1600 stakes per ha. comprises of a total of 5,000 cuttings. Staking As mention earlier, dragon fruit need stakes to support it growth because of slender plant growth. Normally the support stake is made of concrete and its top framework is made of wood, used tyres, wires, or cement. Many farmers using old bicycle tyres to make top frame work in order to save costs. Regular size of support stake made by cement ( concrete) is 4x4x7 (10 cm x 10cm x 25.4 cm) with a height of 6 feet (2 meter). Before plantings begin the stakes were buried in the planting hole and the given planting distant. Pruning

Pruning is one of the important aspects in dragon fruit planting. The purpose of pruning is to take off the unwanted branches, as well as to give balance the whole plant. If we dont prune the plant will easily be affected by disease. Branches which are too long should be trimmed to about 5 -10 cm from the main supporting stem. This is to encourage the new branches to grow. The specialty of this plant is that the old branches can be used to be as cuttings for new planting. Research showed that the length and age of the dragon fruit cuttings used would affect time of flowering that longer cuttings produce early flowers.

Removing excess young shoots from manstem

Fertilization Fertilizing is a process that very important for the dragon fruit plant. This kind of plant needs a good organic fertilizer so that it grows healthy while we need to acidify the soil so that optimize grown occur. The hole for plantation need to need to added with organic soil., CIRP and also chock. Every rod planted with 4 dragon fruit plant. We assume that 2000 section of dragon fruit needed for 0.4 hectares. The type of the fertilizer needed is NPK 15:15:15 and 13:13:21 with the rate of 3 kg/rod/year. The organic soils need with rate 24kg/rod/year. Spilt application technique used during planting. Meanwhile, the foliar fertilizer used to encourage the branches become healthier. When it grows the fertilizing process needed to be plant and added according to timetable Assisted pollination Flowering will commences after one year of planting. Fruit setting will take after 4 to 6 weeks after floral emergence. Pollination occurred at night because the flowers only bloom during night time . In Johore farmers carried out assisted pollination. The pollens has to be collected, kept and stored. Assisted pollination is done at night when the flowers bloom. Hand pollination is done between 8 to 10 p.m. Assisted pollination produced bigger fruits to almost 800 g per fruit.

Collecting pollens from flower

Pollens ready for pollination

Non assisted pollinated (left) and pollinated fruits (right) Dry flowers used to make tea Intercropping While waiting for dragon fruits to be harvested, innovative farmers intercropped short term crops like pineapple, aloe vera, herbs, bananas and even vegetables in their farms. Besides it acts as weed control, extra incomes could be obtained from the inter crop harvests. Crop husbandry Dragon fruit plants are very sensitive to the weedicides. Either contact or systemic weedicides must be avoided that might damaged soft tissues of the succulent skin. It advisable to us drift protected nozzle if sprayings could not be avoided. Control of weeds are important to reduce pests.. Pest and diseases Common pests that usually attack the dragon fruit plant is birds, squirrels, bats snails, and beetles. They damage young and mature fruits. It is advisable to wrap the fruits from pest damage. Insects like mites might caused fruit skin damage that reduce skin texture and colour.

Bacterial and fungal diseases are common in dragon fruits. Resulting stem and collar rots Namely cause d by Xanthomonas campestris. Phomopsis and Dothirella. Regular control using bactericides and fungicides woukd reduce disease infestations. It is to be noted that pruned branches that are infected with disease should not be left freely in the field due to built up of more diseases instead they should be burnt or thrown far away. Costing The estimated initial cost for dragon fruit establishment for one hectare is about RM30K to RM 40K.The plant cuttings are still expensive that RM 10K / hectare which is 35% from the input cost. Cuttings are normally priced at RM 5 to RM 8 measured at 15 cm in length. Each support or pillar needs four plant cuttings. Other inputs organic and foliar fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides. For second , crop establishment would be reduced by 30%. Harvesting Dragon fruit can be harvested all year round and it bears fruits after one year of planting. The peak seasons are around April and September but in some places the harvesting time might vary. The average production in one hectare for second year of planting ranged between 2 to 8 ton and later increases to more than 10 ton per hectare once the crops mature enough. Assuming farm gate price at RM5..00 per kg , investments returns will commenced at the 3 or 4th rd year. The size of fruits depends on several factor such as good pollination, sufficient water, farm management like good fertilization. Bigger fruit size will have higher prices compared the small ones. Dragon fruits are graded such as AA for 500800g, grade A for 350- 450g, grade B for 250-350 g and grade C below 250 g. By products Besides consumed fresh, the red dragon fruit can processed into cordial, jam,wine and other products. There are reports that the content and the skin of dragon fruit can become natural food coloring and lipsticks. This natural food coloring is safe to be used because it does not have any side effects and no harm to our health. Young shoots can be cooked just like we cook lady's finger. Its nutritious. There is another source vegetable which had medicinal value in our diet. The dry flowers can be processed to make tea. The potential of the dragon fruit plantation to increase is very bright due to untapped downstream activities of its by products. This is supported by early investment return, less risk high market demand compared other tropical fruits.