Giant grapefruit basket worth millions for Tet
Grapefruit weighing 7-8 kg, when ripe it turns yellow, is sought after by traders to sell during Tet for prices ranging from 700,000 to one million VND.
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Mr. Tam used newspaper to cover and tie a rope to anchor the grapefruit because it was too heavy, 7 - 8 kg. Photo:Hoang Nam |
Early in the morning, Mr. Ngo Van Tam (66 years old, Dao Thanh, My Tho City) brought a stack of newspapers and a roll of string to the back of his 30-tree grapefruit garden, mixed with coconut trees. Carefully checking each fruit, Mr. Tam used newspaper to wrap around it, both to protect it from the sun and to prevent the grapefruit from getting scratched. Because each fruit weighs 7 - 8 kg, Mr. Tam had to use string to tie it up so that the branches would not break.
These 10-year-old grapefruit trees at first glance would not look much different from traditional green-skinned grapefruits, if not for the dozens of giant grapefruits swinging around the trunk, about 80 cm in diameter. Many of the fruits are ripe with shiny skin, turning lemon yellow.
The garden owner explained that because the grapefruit is huge and resembles a basket, locals also call it a basket grapefruit. The grapefruit only bears fruit once a year, right on Tet holiday, and has a slightly sour taste, not as delicious as regular grapefruit. However, because of its bright yellow skin and red flesh, which symbolizes luck, this type still attracts customers to buy for Tet decoration.
To get the largest fruit, Mr. Tam regularly trims the young fruit, keeping only about 7-10 fruits per tree.
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The largest grapefruit has a diameter of about 80 cm, the skin is yellow when ripe, the flesh is red, the taste is bland, used for Tet decoration. Photo:Hoang Nam |
"My garden has more than 100 large fruits, all of which have been ordered by traders at prices ranging from 500,000 to 700,000 VND each. This year's Tet, my family's income is about 120 million VND," said Mr. Tam.
A week before Tet, traders will come to the garden to harvest grapefruit and sell it to the Western provinces and Ho Chi Minh City.
Mr. Vo Van Nhi (64 years old, Dao Thanh, My Tho City) also shared that in the past, local people mainly grew green-skinned grapefruit to sell for Tet. Due to many years of unstable prices, after attending some local exhibitions, many farmers saw the large, eye-catching grapefruit variety so they bought seedlings to try planting. This is a type of tree that does not require much land and can be intercropped in the garden with other trees. After three years of planting, the tree begins to bear fruit.
"This is a very difficult grapefruit variety to grow. It must be suitable for the soil to produce large fruit. Around here, there are nearly ten households growing it, but only 2 or 3 are successful," said Mr. Nhi.
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A grapefruit tree full of fruit in Dao Thanh commune. Photo:Hoang Nam |
According to Mr. Nhi’s experience, to get the fruit ripe in time for Tet, from the fourth lunar month, because it is the rainy season, farmers need to cover the tree base with plastic tarps and stop watering. After about a month, the gardeners remove the tarps, wash the branches, water a lot and add organic fertilizer, usually compost from fish carcasses. By mid-May, the tree will begin to flower and bear fruit.
This year, Mr. Nhi's family has 10 grapefruit trees, about 50 large fruits have been ordered by traders at a price of 250,000 - 700,000 VND each.
Because the profit from growing pomelos is 5-7 times higher than that of green-skin pomelos, Mr. Nhi's family is planting 50 more pomelos around their garden.
Grapefruit growers said that this is a "unique" variety of fruit for Tet, so after the previous crop ends, traders will make a contract to buy the fruit for the following year. Many curious people and fruit traders, after looking online, went to the garden to buy at a high price but had to return empty-handed. Currently, some gardeners have taken cuttings and sold them for about 200,000 VND per sapling.
