More on dragon fruits

Everything goes up...fuel, fertilizers, rice etc. How can we save costs on planting? It is a big challenge that we face in this quarter of century

More dragon fruit diseases-poster

There was a poster at the National Fruit Conference 2007 in Johere Bahru, Malaysia. It covers fungal and bacterial diseases. Why this happens and how to solve it.
Above in a poster regarding to dragon fruit diseases.

Should any one interested please email me or call me.

Disease -Free Dragon Fruit Planting Materials

The dragon fruit is usually propagated by seeds or cuttings. Although several studies have examined these general propagation methods of dragon fruit, no widely available information currently exist as to the protocols for production of high quality planting material of Selenicereus megalanthus via tissue culture system. Even in the absence of an efficient protocol, there remains the need to quantify the impact of micropropagated material of yellow dragon fruits in the field.

Plant tissue culture is an alternative method of propagation for large scale production of plants. Several researchers have developed a protocol for micropropagation of yellow pitaya. However, these reports lack the comprehensive key information on the large production of using tissue culture technology for the clonal propagation of yellow dragon fruit planting material.

Dragon Fruit Disease

Our early findings was that 'white spots' caused on dragon fruits branches was due to sucking insects. I have gone at least three farms around the country to find out what is the main cause of white spots. From my observations, we detected no fungus or bacteria- like diseases. Our hypotheses is that the pathogen attack or damage only when there were punctures or small holes made by insects.Therefore, the disease came in later once the tissue ruptured. Our mission is to control the vector. It is not easy to find the vector because it very very small or minute to be seen with our naked eyes.
Our solution was try avoid those insects using organic oils etc. Here are my comments in Malay language

Dari pengamatan yang dibuat, adalah di percayai keratan batang dan buah yang dihantar buah naga tuan telah di serang oleh kumbang halus (scale insect) dimana kesan gigitan terdapat pada kulit. Ada kemungkinan pendapat adalah disebabkan bakteria.

Rawatan pemberian racun berbentuk `broadspectrum’ seperti Decis, Rogor atau mempunyai racun yang mempunyai bahan aktif `dimethoate’ adalah difikirkan sesuai. Sekiranya jangkitan disebabkan bakteria racun Kocide boleh digunakan.

Disamping itu kebersihan ladang seperti rumput rumpai hendaklah dijaga. Syor kami ialah menyembur tanaman buah naga (dragon fruits) dengan baja foliar, racun kulat dan racun serangga berbentuk `cocktail’ iaitu bebe ntuk campuran. (10 g Welgrow (baja foliar); 10 g Lebacid (racun serangga) dan 20 g Manzate-D (racun kulat) di campur dengan 1 gelen air.

Agronomic Practices

Pruning is very important in dragon fruit cultivation. Besides, it provides good framework and balance for plant canopy, it allows good ventilation for plants. Small insects might live within the compact canopy making spraying of insects difficult. I have observed that farmers practise the wrong way to prune dragon fruits making it attack by insects badly.

The top pic shows how farmers pruned dragon fruits the wrong way.It has become multi layer that caused heavy load to the support stand.

Below is the correct way how to prune dragon fruit. The top part should be free from new shoot growth allowing sunshine to penetrate and good ventilation.

Visit To Brunei Darulsalam

I had spent my holidays in Brunei from 26th to 30th November.This is my first visit to the country. I crossed through Limbang, then to Temburong. What is interesting to me is that there are farmers already planting this fruits. I saw they used 2 cuttings per stake made from 'berlian' wood.
I had observed how the farmers made their own organic fertilizers and the farm was very clean. I traced out some secrets of how they control diseases using the cheapest way. The only disease I noticed was brown rust spot caused by Dothirella but it is under control.The weather was wet and dry. Brunei had a very good potential to produce dragon fruits however early works should be done such as suitable land establishment, good and reliable planting materials, management practices and marketing as well downstream activities must be well planed and worked out. The people are eager to plant if the incentives are right.

Prior going to Brunei, I was asked to go to investigate disease breakout in Johore. About 50 acres were infected. What I observed that due to flooding, but the farmers did not control the disease from spreading partly due to bad sanitation and field agronomic activities.Apart from that farmers did not practice the correct pruning techniques, the canopy was dense and crowded that harvest a lot of insects and fungus.One more thing they did not pruned at the joints, making easy infection of diseases to enter if the branches were half-pruned.