Mehmet Kılıç, who lives and works as a barber in Bayırköy Town of Bilecik, started growing the dragon fruit he saw on the internet with a single seedling in his garden. Kılıç, who has now started mass production in his 210 square meter greenhouse, stated that the fruit has adapted to the climate and soil conditions in the region and is better in quality than in its homeland. Stating that his goal is to increase production by building a larger greenhouse, Kılıç said, “I saw this fruit on the internet and got curious about it 4 years ago. Then I built a small greenhouse in the garden in front of my house and tried it, and we had fruit. We bought a few sample fruits. Then, due to the climate in this region, “We built a 210 square meter greenhouse, thinking it might produce fruit. This is our 4th year. Thank God, the productive days have passed. We had been harvesting for two years, but this year was truly productive,” he said.
“IT’S VERY EASY TO MAINTAIN, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT HOEING AND DIGGING”
Explaining that it is very easy to care for and that there is no need to dig and dig a hoe, Mehmet Kılıç said, “We do not use any pesticides. We grow it entirely using large animal and small animal manure. People are currently very interested in the fruit, and since there is no such fruit in our region, they have never seen or tasted it yet.” “There are a lot of friends who come to visit because there are people,” he said.
“THEY ARE USUALLY PREFERRED RED TYPES IN PASTRIES BECAUSE THEY ARE FOR COLOURING PURPOSES”
Explaining that there are 4 types of dragon fruit, Kılıç said, “There are many types of them, but we have 4 types. There is a yellow type of dragon fruit, it has white inside and a white inside. There is a pink dragon fruit, and we have a red inside type. We also have the black variety. Of course, they all have different flavors and different sugar levels. That’s why we have 4 varieties. They generally use the red varieties in cakes and milk desserts because they are used for coloring purposes. “It is said that our white breed is good for balancing diabetics and high blood pressure patients, so people with such disorders prefer our white breed more,” he said.
