Will Dragon Fruit Seeds Grow? – How To Video Guide

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Will Dragon Fruit Grow From Seeds
Will Dragon Fruit Grow From Seeds

I wanted to know this question for myself because if I could grow them from seeds that would save time and money acquiring cuttings. There is so much information on the internet, but this time I tried growing them myself and below are the results.

Dragon fruit will grow from seeds and will begin germinating and sprouting within 5 to 7 days with ample water, light and warmth. The small black seeds, which are scattered throughout the flesh, will crack after 5 days and a little white shoot will appear as the seed sprouts. These sprouts can then be grown into Dragon Fruit Plants and will begin flowering within 6 months, but if grown in containers may take 2 years to bear fruit.

I love growing these plants from seeds, in fact, I will discuss the process in full depth below with video footage of the growth stages you can expect.

Just so you know, I am growing mine in the middle of winter, and it’s cold, so if you are living in a warmer climate then you should have no excuses not to be sprouting and growing your seeds.

In this article we will discuss:

  • How to Get Dragon Fruit Seeds
  • How to Grow Dragon Fruit Plant from Seeds
  • How to Grow Red Dragon Fruit From seeds
  • How Long Does Dragon Fruit Take to Grow

How To Get Dragon Fruit Seeds.

First things first you are going to need some dragon Fruit seeds, and the easiest, cheapest and fastest way to get them is to go to your local supermarket or Asian store and buy a Dragon Fruit. There are literally thousands of seeds scattered throughout the flesh.

We have devoted an entire article and video series to this question. You can read the entire process here: How To Get Dragon Fruit Seeds Easy

Here is a brief breakdown of the article, however, I encourage you to read the entire article as it contains a number of helpful tips to extract the seeds.

Using a sieve squeeze the pulp through the sieve under running water to leave behind the seeds.

Here is a short video of the process:

How To Grow Dragon Fruit Plant From Seeds

We decided to test a number of ways to grow the seeds and see which one was the best. Our Dragon Fruit seeds were collected from a Dragon fruit we bought in the local supermarket, is the red flesh variety with a mild sweetness.

We could tell it was imported from Vietnam due to the sticker on its skin that said Vietnam. There was no other indication of its variety, only that it was pink skin with red flesh.

The seeds had been dried and stored in the open air in my room for four months before we decided to sprout and plant them. We feel we would get better results from fresh seeds, so we have also begun testing with freshly gathered seeds from the same variety of Dragon Fruit.

Our first setup with growing the Dragon fruit plants from seeds was a piece of tissue paper in a transparent container, to let the light in, that has a lid that can be closed to keep the seeds moist and warm. Check Picture Below.

For our initial watering, we used some mineral water with a little liquid organic seaweed for added nutrition.

I use this when growing my wheatgrass and it seems to make them grow very thick and lush, but I’m not sure how the dragon fruit seeds will take to it.

Our next setup in growing the Dragon Fruit plants from seeds was to place some seeds onto cotton balls that had been soaked with a little of our mineral water and liquid organic seaweed mixture. Check the picture below.

They were placed into the same container as our first setup with the tissue paper. It is important to have a transparent lid to let the light in and to keep the seeds warm and moist.

Dragon Fruit Seeds - Day 9 Tissue & Cotton Wool Method
Dragon Fruit Seeds – Day 9 Tissue & Cotton Wool Method

Our final setup for growing dragon fruit plants from seeds was a small takeaway disposable coffee cup with a few holes placed in the bottom to allow drainage.

This disposable cup was then placed into another cup so that the drained water will not go everywhere but rather sit nicely in the bottom of the second cup.

We then filled the first disposable cup with cactus potting mix, this is a special mix made for cactus plants that is a good draining soil. Although I have heard that some special soils for seeds can be good as well.

We placed the seeds just under the surface of the soil and proceeded to water with some of our mineral water and liquid organic seaweed. See Picture Below.

Dragon Fruit Seeds - Grown In Soil
Dragon Fruit Seeds – Grown In Soil

Each day we gave each dragon fruit plant seed setup a little watering with some mineral water.

The seeds were placed out of direct sunlight but in a warm room, with a heater going, as it is the middle of winter and cold. The room had a window so daylight was able to filter into the room.

As a side note, we decided to include another experiment, which we started a day later. We poured some mineral water into a sprouting jar and then placed a number of seeds into the water directly to see if they would sprout.

This is how I start my wheatgrass and it works really well to get them to initially germinate. They also were placed away from direct sunlight but were in a warm room.

After 8 days we decided to abandon the sprouting jar method and just stick to the tissue paper method as we were not getting any results from the sprouting jar method. We think the seeds are just too waterlogged to be able to sprout.

Results and Takeaway

Day 3: We can see many of the seeds in the sprouting jar ‘cracking’ and a white edge showing, which was the beginning of the shoot.

Day 4: After 4 days we can see that two of the seeds on the tissue paper had begun to sprout. None of the seeds on the cotton balls had begun to sprout, and as far as we can tell there was no growth with the seeds placed into the cactus soil mix.

Day 6: After day 6 the two seeds that had begun sprouting were growing the most quickly with a third beginning to sprout. Still no sprouting from the seeds on the cotton balls and no sprouting from the seeds placed into the soil.

Day 7: The sprouts on the tissue paper are getting bigger. One is white while one is a green colour. We feel the green coloured one may do better than the white shoot. There is a third sprout on the tissue paper and it’s a light green colour.


What’s amazing is that one seed on the cotton ball has begun to sprout and its growing rapidly. It sprouted either last night or early this morning and already the shoot is quite big.

With the above results so far, the takeaway from all of this is that you should have dragon fruit plant sprouts from seeds within 7 days if you follow this method.

I have heard that some dragon fruit seeds can take from 14 to 21 days to sprout, but that is if you plant them directly in soil.

We will probably wait a few more days to give the sprouts a little more time to develop before we transplant them into some small pots.

Day 9: We are ready to transplant the Dragon Fruit Sprouts into a container with some cactus & succulent potting mix. As you can see from the picture below the sprouts are growing rapidly and are in good health.

Rather than pull them off the tissue paper, we will transplant them while still on the tissue paper.

Dragon Fruit Seeds Day 9 Ready To Transplant
Dragon Fruit Seeds Day 9 – Ready To Transplant

Here is an update video below after 120 days of growing these seeds. The results are very good considering we have a cooler climate. I am very pleased with the outcome so far.

How to Grow Red Dragon Fruit From Seeds

From the results above, with our seed sprouting test using the red dragon fruit variety, it would seem that initially sprouting your seeds on a piece of tissue paper that has been moistened with some water (we used mineral water with a little liquid organic seaweed) and placed into a transparent container with a lid provides the best and fastest way to get your seeds started on their journey to becoming mature dragon fruit plants.

Remember to keep the room warm if you live in colder climates. Try to place them in a position where they are getting sunlight, although it doesn’t have to be direct sunlight.

Within about 7 days you should have young sprouts that you can transplant into pots.

How Long Does Dragon Fruit Take to Grow

How Long For Dragon Fruit Seeds To Grow
How Long For Dragon Fruit Seeds To Grow?

So how long can you expect to have to wait until you are eating a freshly picked Dragon Fruit from your own vine?

Well below are the expected times from seed to fruit. These estimates can be much faster if you grow your Dragon Fruit from cuttings which we will discuss in another article.

However, dragon fruit seeds take a while to grow as they tend to grow slowly. Expect at least 7 to 14 days to get them to sprout large enough to put them into a pot with soil.

From there they will slowly develop into larger plants that will need transplanting as they outgrow their pots. The whole process from seed to fruit can take up to two years or more.

A faster way is to grow your Dragon fruit plants from cuttings; we will cover this in another article.

They can be fruiting within 6 months, or alternatively grow your seeds and when they are old enough graft a cutting into the young plant. We will cover this method in another article.

Juan & Raquel

We are Juan & Raquel, the guys behind Fruit Information. We've been interested in fruit over the last few decades and have been busy with improving our knowledge of the different varieties. I, Juan, have been almost a fruitarian for over a decade and almost solely living on fruits as my main dietary intake. My wife Raquel has worked on a fruit farm and also worked in a nursery and seedlings shop. She is a very experienced and knowledgeable farmer. We have recently undertaken a new Dragon Fruit farm with friends.

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