Just came across this. I used to live in Hawaii and would pick dragonfruit on the roadside regularly. Can I grow them indoors, and how long until it produces fruit?
Idk a while? About a year?
Also, moth pollinated so you’ll be waiting a while indoors.
I have starts if you need some.
‘Moth pollinated’ indoors just translates to ‘get out the good paintbrush’.
Under the assumption they’ll even flower indoors…
Also, they take up a lot of space and are very ‘disorganized’ as a plant. It’s not a plant you can get a fruit from a small plant on. They like to set their axillary roots into things and into the soil. You would need at least a 20 gallon pot and a strong trellis. Also, you’ll need to supplement the hell out of the lighting. Dragon fruits want full, equatorial sunlight. Then, you’ll get 2-3 fruits per plant per year, under the assumption it’s even possible to get them to flower indoors.
A value of maybe 30-45 dollars retail for a few large full size dragon fruit; you’ll probably spend 10x minimum on that for just the set up and probably 100+ per year for the lights to run.
If you want to grow tropical fruit, probably try doing it in the tropics instead of trying to force things to work where they didnt evolve.
Good grief, you act as if this is a life-or-death matter, and putting tropical plants indoors is some great transgression. Yes, dragonfruit plants are large, jumbled wandering types; OP will probably end up giving one or two plants an entire wall, I expect.
But there’s nothing wrong with a hobby; if growing dragonfruit plants indoors turns out to be theirs, then let them have fun. It isn’t always about the quantity of fruit, after all. Sometimes it’s just about seeing what you can accomplish.
Its just not a thing that has to be forced into being. There are plenty of tropicals that can be well done under lights or dwarfed. Cacao, vanilla, plenty of ornamental s will do just fine owing to the fact that they evolved in light limited circumstances.
You are the one acting like this is an all or nothing thing with no attempt to address the probability of success critically. Growing the wrong plant, in the wrong location, wrong climate, wrong system, wrong times of year: this is setting up novice gardeners for failure.
They are asking a question about growing dragon fruit indoors and filling people with false hope is a kind of deception that I don’t appreciate.