Saving Dragon Fruit Seeds

Dragon fruit is quite yummy, but can also be a bit expensive in the stores. But, if you live in the right climate, you can grow your own fruit (or pitaya).

Dragon Fruit Seeds Extraction Process

You can find the cactus (yes, the Dragon Fruit plant is a cactus…and it does have little groupings of fine spines.) in some nurseries or you can also start from propagation if you have a friend with a plant who is willing to share one of the easily removable sections with you. But you can also start a Dragon Fruit plant from seed.

How To Remove Dragon Fruit Seeds

Dragon Fruit seeds are not difficult to harvest, just a bit messy and a little time needed for a thorough drying (if you plan on storing the seeds). Begin by cutting the ends off of the fruit, then carefully peeling the outer skin off. Put skin aside for compost. To make it easier, cut the fruit into quarters. Then, putting a fine sieve over a bowl and using your fingers, carefully smash the fruit flesh through the screening until you have only seeds left in the sieve. Rinse until the water runs pretty well clear of any color.

If you still see more fruit that needs pressing, push any remainder through and rinse again. Repeat with each piece of fruit, dumping the clump of seeds onto a large plate in between each pressing. It is not a good idea to use a paper plate for this, because the seeds will stick and juices will soak through and possibly stain. However, if that is all you have, then place a piece of waxed paper down first, large enough to cover the entire plate. The seeds will come off easier. This may also be done if using a regular plate.

Saving Pressing Liquid For Drinks Or Syrup

Do not throw the resulting liquid from the pressing away. Put in a container and refrigerate for a few days or freeze. Especially good for use in many kinds of drinks, both alcoholic and non alcoholic or making a simple syrup. If you have done a lot of fruits, you can also cook down to make a dragon fruit syrup. But you will need a lot of liquid to make this a feasible use.

Spread Seeds Out On A Plate

Once you have all the seed clumps on the plate, spread them out into a single layer. And yes, they will stick to your fingers but if you end up losing a few seeds because of this, as you can see by now, you’ll have plenty to spare.  You’ll notice that they have a sort of gel around them. This will disappear as the drying process goes on. Allow to air dry in a spot where the plate(s) will not be disturbed, but also where you will remember to move the seeds around a bit each day.

As the seeds dry, they will begin to loosen up from the plate. If they do still stick a bit, use a sharp knife to gently loosen. Drying time will depend on temperature, humidity, etc. It usually takes about a week. When thoroughly dry, store seeds in an envelope and keep cool/dry. Also, at this point, if there is still a little dried matter stuck to the seeds, it should crumble off without issue. If not, then seeds should probably dry for a bit longer.

PlantzNThings shows us a video on dragon fruit tasting and seed planting:

And that’s it! It is really a simple process. Where it is time consuming is during the drying process, but except for a few stirs of the seeds, you don’t have to put much of your own time into this phase. So give it a try and have some fun with it. And with all the seeds you have, you can even share with some friends.

Have you tried saving seeds from dragon fruit too and planting them? Let us know in the comments section below.

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