Many dragon fruit varieties are self-fertile, meaning they can set fruit using their own pollen without the need for another plant. While that’s great news for growers with limited space, we still highly recommend hand-pollinating all your dragon fruit plants — whether they’re self-fertile or self-sterile.
Why Hand Pollination Matters
Also known as Pitaya, dragon fruit flowers are truly special — they only bloom for one night! During that short window, the flower must be pollinated to produce fruit. Relying on insects or the weather isn’t always reliable.
Even with self-pollinating varieties, too much rain can wash away the pollen, or cool or windy nights may deter bats, moths, or bees from visiting the flowers. A simple hand pollination can make all the difference between a flower that fades away and one that turns into a beautiful piece of fruit.
Our Favorite Self-Fertile Varieties
We grow a number of self-fertile dragon fruit varieties at Rare Dragon Fruit, and some of our favorites include:
- American Beauty
- Dawns Purple
- Tropical Pink
- Pink Panther
- North Queensland Red
- Hollywood White King
- Pink Diamond
- Common red
- Capistrano Valley
- Desert King
When and How We Pollinate
While many growers pollinate at night, we prefer to do it early in the morning, between 5am and 8am, when the flowers are still open and the pollen is fresh. Using this simple method, we achieve about a 99% success rate.
We use a Pollen vacuum and a soft brush .
If there is rain predicted we also bag our dragon fruit flowers.
Don’t Rule Out the Self-Sterile Varieties
While self-fertile types are convenient, self-sterile dragon fruit are well worth the effort. The fruit they produce is often of exceptional quality, and the diversity of flavours can be outstanding — from deep berry notes to floral and tropical undertones. With the right pollination partner and a bit of attention, these varieties can easily become the stars of your collection.
Our top pick for self sterile dragon fruit are
- Not s8
- G2
- Jungle Jim
- Blush
- Hailey's comet
- Delight
- Asunta
- Isis Gold
- Godzilla
- Red Jaina
It’s a peaceful time of day to work among the flowers — and one of the most rewarding parts of growing dragon fruit.
