Southern California growers see potential for dragon fruit
“Wherever avocados will grow, the dragon fruit will grow,” Martin said.
While Temecula gets too hot and too cold for the plants, he has a dragon fruit farm in the hills west of Temecula and another one in Rainbow.
A unique feature of the dragon fruit is that it blooms at night. Martin said the big tubular flower is very similar to the common night blooming Cerius cactus flower, but most sweet red dragon fruit blooms require hand pollination to set the small-grapefruit-sized fruit.
Martin sells his dragon fruit for $3 a pound at most and stores sell it for as much as $10 a pound. He said, “The red-flesh fruit is somewhat rare as production is very low. All my fruit ends up at Gelson’s (Market) beginning in three weeks. "
"California lends itself to organic better than tropical growing regions so some growers are organic and sell to specialty stores. Imported white flesh fruit is a regular item in stores specializing in Asian cuisine.”
The San Diego County Farm Bureau is holding the 2017 Pitahaya/Dragon Fruit Production Tour on Friday, Aug. 25, starting at its office at 1670 East Valley Parkway in Escondido.
The tour includes stops at pitahaya or dragon fruit farms in Escondido, Fallbrook, and Bonsall. The event also includes a pitahaya fruit and ice cream tasting, and a talk about “All Things Dragon Fruit” by Gray Martin, dragon fruit grower and breeder.
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