History+and+Cultivation

=Growing a Dragon = ===Like explained earlier the Dragon Fruit only grows naturally in certain parts of Central America and in Mexico. In order to thrive, the fruit needs warm temperatures and moderate rain. Recently, due to the increased demand, Colombia, Nicaragua, and Vietnam have began to grow the fruit commercially. In order to succeed these countries need to ensure that the plants see not higher than 40 degrees Celsius and get at least 600-1300mm of water. However, over watering the plant can cause the flower to wilt and sag, which in turn causes the fruit to rot. Furthermore, the plants must not be kept in the sun for an entire day. Many species of the Dragon fruit have to spend at least half of the day in the shade so that they do not spoil. In order to ensure that the fruits are not overexposed to sunlight, many commercial growers grow the plant beneath a nethouse so that the skin is not bleached.===

===Like the average apple the Dragon Fruit begins as nothing but a small bud. However, rather than on a tree, the bud is on a cactus. From the bud stems a small flower which overtime grows into a beautiful aspect of nature. But the flower does not live long. Eventually the flower begins to collapse in on itself and slowly its white pedals turn brown and fall off. The collapse flower then slowly begins to grow a protective casing around itself. Overtime this casing becomes pink and that is when the Dragon fruit is ready to be consumed. The whole process somewhat resembles a butterfly forming a cocoon around itself. the whole process takes a few weeks to complete, but the flower itself only lasts one day.===