Agriculture.ph Blog

Mr. Eddie Silan

DRAGON FRUIT IN UPLAND CAVITE

Edilberto Rodil Silan started the Dragon Fruit business six years ago, he started by trying out the trimmings of the plant from the 5 hectare farm in Tambo Balagbag of a Chinese Businessman, Mr. Alex Liton who first brought Dragon Fruit with imported planting materials from Taiwan.

Mr. Silan together with former Governor Juanito Remulla, experimented on how to grow the Dragon Fruit themselves since they have no idea yet if the exotic fruit can manage their local planting resources.  The two must have green thumbs as they have grown the fruits successfully in the Cavite Uplands.

People’s familiarity with the Dragon Fruit

Since the fruit is not common in the Philippines, locals were not patronizing it.  Many years ago, farmers tried introducing Dragon Fruit in wet markets selling it for a humble price of almost as low as P20 per kilo on visually morphed or slightly damaged ones.  It was only the foreigners especially the Chinese, Taiwanese and Vietnamese who avidly bought the produce.  Mr. Silan added that the first Cavite city/town that accepted the Dragon Fruit in the market was Tagaytay City probably because its growing 1st class population, including tourists.

White fleshed Dragon fruit and Red fleshed Dragon fruit

Three types of Dragon Fruit

Hylocereus undatus – this has a pink skin and a white flesh.

Hylocereus polyrhizus – a little darker pink skin with red flesh

Selenicereus megalanthus –yellow skin and white flesh. The fruit are smaller than the other two varieties (which can weigh up to 1kg) and contains higher levels of sugar.

How to eat Dragon Fruit

With a strange looking fruit, I myself was intimidated the first time I was handed one.  A lot of people have told me that it looks like a crossbreed between strawberries and pear.  But I didn’t know how to eat it.  So I thought, should I bite through its skin like an apple or a pear?  Should I boil it like a saba banana?  My first dragon fruit went to a waste since nobody at home knew how to eat it.  There are two easy ways to eat a Dragon Fruit, you can cut it half then into wedge style quarters, the skin peels off easily and you can bite into the flesh like a banana.  For the red flesh, its advisable to cut it in half and scoop out the flesh with a spoon so as not to stain your fingers.

Taste and texture like Kiwi fruit depending on the variety

Does it taste like a dragon?

The fruit does not taste anything like a dragon.  It is difficult to describe the first bite as it is usually rather tasteless.  It looks too pretty to eat.   It is very juicy, and the seeds give an interesting crunchy sensation in your mouth.  You have to eat a lot of dragon fruit before you begin to appreciate it, and somehow find some sweetness in its blandness.  Like a watermelon, it is best served chilled.

Why pay too much for a tasteless fruit?

In most grocery stores in Metro Manila, fresh dragon fruit costs about Php180-200 per kiloTrue enough it is expensive, and yes some dragon fruit maybe tasteless.  But what you are paying for is its abundant nutritional value.  The dragon fruit is rich in fibre and vitamin C.  Vitamin C from dragon fruit is easily absorbed in the body compared to the synthetic vitamin C that can be bought in drugstores.  In a lot of countries, dragon fruit are dried before eaten because the vitamin C content of a dehydrated dragon fruit is 10 times higher than the vitamin c that comes from a fresh one.  The dragon fruit is said to help control blood sugar levels of type 2 diabetes, and there have been reports that it helped type 1 diabetes’ blood sugar as well.  It is rich in antioxidants, a perfect source of phytoalbumins.  It helps prevent colon cancer and improves digestion.  Mr. Silan also added that the dragon fruit is also an aphrodisiac.

Dragon Fruit – Flor de Luna?

If you are familiar with Flor de Luna teleserye, you may remember the white flower that opens up at night.  Similar thing happens to the flower of the cactus (dragon fruit comes from cactus) it is usually seen like a closed bud in the morning and then it slowly opens its petals at night, from 8:00pm to 12:00am and starts closing again after midnight.  The flower is called, “Queen of the Night” while the Dragon fruit is called “King of all fruits”.

Can the cactus grow anywhere?

It would technically grow anywhere in the Philippines.  A friend of mine tried putting the seeds in a clay pot and after a few days she had several seedlings.  Dragon fruit cactus have been recognized as a beautiful ornamental plants.  But if you plan on growing your own fruit, it is best to plant trimmings, and set up pieces of wood or tires where the cactus can crawl up to.  In the wild, they grow out of the soil and look for a tree to hang on to.  They can grow on all types of soil but grows best in soil with lots of nutrients of course by adding organic matter.

According to Mr. Silan, the returns are pleasant.   Just like in any business it needs 100% attention and care.  For those interested in dragon fruits or would like to become a member of Cavite Modern Growers may contact Mr. Eddie R. Silan at +639165410893 or may email at eddie_silan@yahoo.com

Source: www.risingsouth.com

Contact Information: Mr. Eddie R. Silan at +639165410893 or may email at eddie_silan@yahoo.com