Mexico: Puebla expects to produce 80% more pitahaya

After cleaning the orchards and adding fertilizer to the pitahaya plants between November and Februa…

After cleaning the orchards and adding fertilizer to the pitahaya plants between November and February, the producers of pitahaya are performing the first cut of this fruit, which is well known for its red an yellow colors, in May so that they can place them in the market of Acatlan, Moralillo, that belongs to Izucar de Matamoros and in the neighboring municipality of Huajuapan de Leon, Oaxaca.

The first thing that needs to be done when producing pitahayas is to clean the orchards; a job that is done after the rainy season ends so that the producers can give each pitahaya plant compost so that the plants produce a fruit that has a good size and taste.

Rodrigo Alvarez Gil, a producer of this fruit, said that he performed said activities with the help of his family each year, and that sometimes he hired two or three workers to help them.

Regarding this year's production, he said that they still hadn't harvested their first ton this year but that, according to estimates, this season's production would increase by nearly 80 percent over the previous year.

The producer said that the only problems producers faced were the red ant plague, which causes the pitahaya flower to dry, and the appearance of some fungi caused by atypical rains.

"There will be a full production by the end of May and we'll be able to talk about various amounts. The first cut has been made and we cut some one hundred pitahayas from a thousand plants," he stated.

He added that the production season would conclude in June, and that producers would continue taking care of the plant for next year's production.