People successfully grow yellow flower tea from seeds in Que Phong

Around 2010, some traders from other places came to Thong Thu commune to buy medicinal herbs in the forest, including the yellow tea flower tree at high prices. Seeing this, many villagers rushed into the forest to search, picking flowers, leaves and digging up the yellow tea flower tree to sell.

Mr. Lo Van Sinh’s family in Na Huong village, Thong Thu commune (Que Phong) also went into the forest to dig up yellow tea flowers. But unlike many villagers at that time, he did not sell them but kept them to grow in his family’s garden. By chance, he read an article about the value of yellow tea flowers, a medicinal herb that is considered “as precious as gold”, so he paid more attention and wanted to expand it.

From then on, he went to the forest every day, picking ripe fruits from tea trees in the forest to make pots and grow seedlings. At first, because he did not understand the characteristics of the tree and had not mastered the technique, many batches of seedlings did not germinate, or the seedlings that did germinate developed poorly. Gradually, with experience, the success rate of the seedlings increased. After the seedlings were strong, he planted them in the garden on the hill, interspersed under the canopy of cinnamon trees.

“The yellow flower tea tree of Que Phong is different from yellow flower tea from other places. The leaves of the yellow flower tea tree of Que Phong are long, thin, and soft, not big or thick; the bright yellow flowers (even when dried, they still have their original yellow color) contain countless active ingredients that are beneficial to human health…

On the one hand, because of its great value and high selling price, even though it is hidden in the deep forests and mountains, the yellow tea tree is still at risk of being destroyed, while very few places have established tea raw material areas. Therefore, I think that nurturing, propagating and planting yellow tea trees will bring higher economic value than other crops,” said Mr. Sinh.

According to Mr. Sinh, this is a natural yellow flower tea tree, so it likes shade, is easy to grow and easy to care for, so he decided to plant it under the cinnamon canopy to save space and not have to invest in care, but can exploit both economic levels on the same area.

After nearly 10 years of planting and caring, his family's yellow tea garden has now grown well, with more than 1,500 trees, of which nearly 700 are under protection and have begun to yield flowers.

Last year, because the tree was newly planted, the flower yield was low, only over 50 kg. With an average selling price of 800,000 VND/kg of fresh camellia, Mr. Sinh earned over 40 million VND. According to Mr. Sinh, in addition to harvesting flowers, the leaves of the yellow camellia have a neutral nature so they are also used to make daily drinks that have a very good cooling effect.

To preserve the seed source and expand the area of ​​yellow flower tea, Mr. Sinh decided to leave 1/3 of the flowers to bear fruit for breeding, crossbreeding other yellow flower tea varieties from different localities; at the same time, he studied the technique of handling tea plants to flower in adverse weather conditions.

“If the fruit falls and grows into a tree, it takes 6 months to have a sapling, because there is no selection so the growth is poor. Last year, I started to try to grow it, and was successful with 500 trees, planted in a forest garden, with an 80% survival rate. Hopefully, in a few years, I will successfully grow the yellow flower tea variety, and have seedlings to supply to the market,” said Mr. Sinh.

Taking us to visit the yellow tea hill, on an area of ​​over 1 hectare, thousands of yellow tea trees are growing green and lush under the 15-year-old cinnamon trees. The newly sprouted tea buds are purple, spreading into larger leaves, then turning purple, then gradually turning light green, dark green, and glossy green.

In just a few years, Mr. Sinh’s hill garden will generate a high income, estimated at hundreds of millions of VND/year from harvesting the “Queen of Tea” flowers. “I did the propagation of yellow tea flowers completely spontaneously, without capital, knowledge and without companions. If possible, I really hope to have support from cooperatives, linking groups and the help of functional agencies in linking planting, production and consumption…”, Mr. Sinh said.