Early Apricot Blossom, Garden Owners “Wither”

Walking through the landscaped apricot crops in the town of An Nhon (Binh Dinh) in mid-November of the lunar calendar, we saw Tet appearing on apricot gardens with bright yellow flowers against a background of green leaves. For the viewer, this picture looks very pleasant, but for those who grow apricots to sell Tet, this is a tragedy. Because if tomorrow blooms so early, they will be “empty” by this year’s Lunar New Year, because no one will buy apricot trees that have run out of buds. How much capital, effort invested in the apricot garden from the beginning of January until now is counted as … public!

Mr. Le Ngoc Lan (47 years old) in Trung Dinh Village, Nhon An Township (An Nhon City) currently has 2,000 pots of apricots, big and small. Every year, during Tet, he selects about 500 pots for sale, but now the pots are apricots, most of his selections have flowered early. In more than 20 years of commercial apricot cultivation, he has never seen an apricot blossom as early as this year.

“When earlier in August, September of the lunar calendar the gardener took care of the apricot tree with too much force and the apricot tree was very healthy, it just bloomed in three buds early. This year is only October of the lunar calendar, but there are many apricot gardens that bloom with bright yellow flowers, entering the month of November of the lunar calendar, they bloom more and more. It’s not cold this year, it rains suddenly, the weather is warm, so the flowers bloom early at the same time. At the same time, the flowers bloom early, the garden owners cannot save them,” Mr. Lan fears.

Through observation, we found that the old apricot orchards that were 5 years old or older have produced many buds, in addition to the buds that have blossomed now, there are many other buds that have just opened or are as small as rice husks . . From now until Tet, if it gets cold or rains for a long time, it won’t suddenly rain like today, the apricot tree still has “offspring” buds to welcome Tet. As for the healthy apricot orchards that are only 3 years old, which are budding at the same time, blooming once and all the buds are on the tree, these apricot pots are sure to stay in the garden this year but cannot be eaten.

The sadness of the early blooming apricots covered all the apricots in the apricot village in the so-called “golden apricot capital” in An Nhon, Mr. Dang Van Di (62 years old) in Nhon An township said bitterly, “This year I have about 700 pots, but straight now there are more than 300 pots of bright yellow flowers.When it is not cold but raining and raining so irregular, no need to pick up the leaves, from now to tomorrow most now I can only hope from now If until the end of the lunar year the cold weather persists to slow down the buds and stop blooming, then the owner of the garden will still save some capital to invest again next year.

Early apricot bloom, gardeners face crop failures while all input costs have skyrocketed this year. According to Mr. Le Tan Bo, who is planting 7,000 to 8,000 pots of apricots of all ages in Hao Duc Village (Nhon An Municipality), this year’s labor wages have risen more than last year, fertilizer and pesticide prices have also risen, and bamboo poles were last year only 540,000 VND/sky (1,000 trees), this year 840,000 VND/sky.

“It costs me more than VND 100 million every year to buy a bail. With 7,000-8,000 apricot trees, everything from electricity, rents, fertilizers, pesticides to buying bamboo canes… from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, I’ve spent about VND 250 million,” said Mr. Le Tan Sharing.

Tomorrow’s Tet supply is expected to drop sharply

According to Mr. Bo’s share, with the current inclement weather, if an apricot tree retains its thick leaves, it will limit early flowering and more buds that can be sold during Tet. If you want the apricot tree to produce more buds, you must take good care of it from the beginning of the year and distribute the medicine regularly, especially from the 6th lunar month, that is the time when the apricot tree closes its buds. Especially apricot trees with good thick leaves should cover the flower buds located under the leaf axils and not expose the flower buds to sunlight so that they bloom soon.

“To prevent apricot leaves from getting sick, apricot trees have thick, closed leaves from root to tip that need to be treated with medicine, every gardener has a different way of handling medicine. Fertilizers only help the leaves turn green and produce buds. When an apricot garden cannot keep its leaves and encounters unusual weather like this year, the flowers will surely bloom soon,” said Mr.

With many apricot orchards blooming early, it is likely that this year’s Lunar New Year will increase prices as the amount of apricots put on the market will decrease.

From the 7,000-8,000 apricot trees that Le Tan Bo owns, this year he has selected 1,500 pots aged 4-5 years for sale. Thanks to the maintenance of the thick leaves from the base to the top, its apricot trees give many buds, the number of buds that have bloomed is not significant. The good news is that Mr. Bo just sold 700 pots of apricots. In it, there are 500 pots, which he sells at VND 700,000/pot, 150 pots at VND 1.5 million/pot, and 50 pots at VND 3 million/pot. According to Mr. Bo, the price of each apricot pot this year is higher than last year’s Tet of VND100,000-200,000.

All 700 pots of apricot blossoms are sold to locals who have houses along the highway, they buy them for Tet to display on the roadside and sell at a profit, but so far southern traders have not been seen buying apricot leaves. Mr. Bo will continue to take care of more than 700 remaining pots to sell apricot flowers to traditional northern customers. Every year, every year, on November 27th and 28th of the lunar calendar, Mr. Bo collects leaves for apricot trees to close buds to sell to customers in the north, but this year it is not cold due to the unpredictable weather she is expected to arrive on the 3rd. In December, Mr. Bo picked apricot leaves.

“Customers in the north often buy apricots on December 10-12, when the apricot tree has closed green buds, they just bought it. At that time, trucks were concentrated in the Nhon An apricot village in Nuoc Nuoc, parked all over the roads leading to apricot orchards to load them. They are buying to sell before December 23rd is the day Mr. Cong Ong Tao is taken back to heaven. At this time, apricots are often sold at a high price, especially for customers who buy apricots for Tet. After December 23, they often sell cheap for workers and laborers to buy for Tet in their homes,” Le Tan Bo said.

“From now until the Lunar New Year is almost a month and a half, if it suddenly rains and shines like it is now, there is a risk that the next batch of buds will also bloom. Because consumers buy apricots to play Tet flowers, they don’t buy trees. If they cannot sell apricots this year, gardeners will be unhappy because they have invested tens to hundreds of millions of dongs in apricot orchards,” said Le Ngoc Lan in Trung Dinh Village, Nhon An Township (An Nhon City).