Breeding fruit tree varieties – a profession that never loses

Born and raised into a peasant family with many children, Mr. Pham Duc Long in Binh Kieu Township, Khoai Chau (Hung Yen) married when he was just 20 years old and his parents left him to live alone. In the years 1999 to 2000, Khoai Chau was still a purely agricultural district, people’s lives still depended on rice seeds and potatoes.

In order to provide for his family, Mr. Long struggled to change the structure of crop varieties from rice cultivation to intensive banana and papaya cultivation. It’s hard work, but you still can’t get out of poverty because there isn’t enough arable land. Mr. Long had to open a shop to buy and collect pink pepper bananas to sell to traders for export to China, but few trips to sell bananas were paid fairly and profitably and he then lost VND 6 million through one Level 1 notice…

While Mr. Long was losing money and didn’t know what to do to make up for the loss, he was invited by the Hung Yen Agricultural Extension Center to take a course on harvesting and grafting fruit trees. At first, Mr. Long thought only of seeking consolation. Unexpectedly, the longer he listened to the explanation, the more attracted he felt, because he found this profession very well suited to the actual conditions of the crowded country in the area.

As a smart and skillful person, Mr. Long has mastered all the techniques of eye grafting, grafting of branches on citrus trees, as well as longan and lychee after only 10 days of training. Then, when he returned home, Mr. Long convinced his wife to use his entire 2-hectare field to grow all kinds of longan varieties. At the time, the movement to change the structure of crops was very active across the country, contributing to the longan growers in Long always being “sold out”.

Therefore, Mr. Long gradually collected more agricultural land from some other households and hired more workers to expand the production scale of fruit tree varieties (Longan, Mango, Orange, Grapefruit, Na, Sapodilla) to a total area of ​​more than 2ha so far. Of this, there are 0.7 ha of the leading mother longan garden, which grows both fruits and uses seed eyes, the rest is specialized in the production of some other fruits. Every year, Mr. Long’s plant sells 15,000 to 20,000 seedlings of all kinds (mainly longan varieties such as Huong Chi, late Khoai Chau, T6, Super Sweet, Sugar Alum, Hung Yen Coriander, Hung Yen) to the market. . , Golden Light 205).

“The production of fruit trees is never a loss. “Seedlings cannot be sold this year, they must be tended to in the cuttings garden. They may even get a better price next year,” said Mr. Long.

Do you want to sell seeds, only good seeds are not enough

According to Mr. Long, selling standard seeds at reasonable prices is not enough to attract more farmers to buy seedlings, but it is also necessary to regularly promote the products in the media and social networks at the same time. You have to take good care of the customers.

He shares his experiences:

– In order to produce standard varieties, there must be a prime mother yard that produces stable fruit for 5 years or more, is recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and where grafted spikes are allowed to be used for propagation for mass production.

– In order to obtain inexpensive varieties, it is necessary to lower the seed price by ensuring that the seedling survival rate after grafting is well over 95%. Accordingly, in addition to mastering the technique of grafting branches on longan trees, it is necessary to choose the best grafting season (March – April or August – October) and optimal grafting weather (dry days, outdoor temperatures). Average 20-25 degrees Celsius). At the same time, you must choose to cut off the seeds on the branches of the cake as large as the large end of a chopstick in order to eat rice. Before 15–20 days, it is necessary to squeeze out the water from the seedlings (circle the bark of the branches at a distance of 30–35 cm from the root of the branch) to stimulate the sprouts to quickly sleep on the seedlings sprouting after grafting onto the tree.

– When sowing seeds for rootstock, select only those that are large, balanced and pest-free, and soak them in lime water for about 30 minutes to remove the fungus and sweetness left on the seeds. Then pick up the seeds, sow them in moist humus until germinating (about 5 days) and then sow them in a prepared potting soil (1 seed/pot). Arrange these growing pots on the bed, cover with a layer of soil, water daily to retain moisture, timely prevent pests, apply 1.5kg NPK/rod (360m²) after each root rotation so that the plants grow healthily. After about 15-18 months the rootstock will be as big as the tip of your little finger, then cut off the tip at a height of 25-30cm from the pot surface and proceed with the grafting.

– Note: After each tree has buds, it is necessary to do a root inversion to a pot (transfer the plant from a small pot to a larger pot), the purpose is to cut the roots of the tree to stimulate the plant to produce many young roots. After sowing in the field, the survival rate reaches 100%.

Seedlings can be released from the garden after 4-5 months of grafting using pots and plastic bags. To get seeds older than 2 years, it is necessary to peel off the plastic bag from the second bud, and then loosen the planting density in the cut garden. After a year, the seedling can be exported.

A standard Longan seedling must be of the right cultivar, free from pests and diseases, with a tall and thick stem, low grafted eyes (25-30 cm high from the pot surface) and 1-1.2 m tall (depending on the species). Age). variety), a set of mature leaves. Produce 2-3 batches of buds, the root tuber has a lot of shrimp roots, that is, it has been overstocked 2-3 times.

– In customer care, there is nothing better than guaranteeing varieties and assisting gardeners with planting and care techniques until the tree achieves a stable fruit yield.

In fact, after many years of seed sales and tree buyers’ feedback, Mr. Long came to the conclusion: for the Central Highlands provinces, the cultivation of longan varieties T6 and Huong Chi is most suitable, the yield is very high, the 4 year – The old tree yielded 30 kg of fruit. /Tree.

Only late-maturing longan varieties, Khoai Chau, early maturing Son La and Anh Vang 205 should be grown in the Northwest region. Many longan varieties can be grown in the Red River Delta region, including Super Sweet Longan, Huong Chi, Duong Alum, and Hung Yen Ancient Leek, Domain Thiet. In particular, using KClO3 to treat late-ripening longan in Khoai Chau will not be effective, but applying traditional techniques (squeezing water, blocking roots, cutting branches) will produce flowers and fruit as desired. .

Mr. Long is not only the owner of a fruit tree nursery, but also the director of the Minh Bao Clean Agricultural Cooperative. The cooperative, led by Mr. Long, always produces 50 hectares of Super Sweet and Huong Chi Longan that meet VietGAP standards, and supplies the market with dozens of tons of high-quality gift tags every year at the price of 40,000-50,000 VND/kg (higher than double so tall). 3-4 times the price of the label sold on the market). In this longan harvest in 2023, despite the loss of the general harvest, the cooperative still produces over 100 tons of longan of all kinds.