Nghe An farmers 'ban' dragon fruit from bearing fruit to 'avoid' Covid-19 pandemic

At this time last year, Ms. Le Thi Lac's family in Quynh Thuan commune (Quynh Luu) mobilized workers to go to the garden to fertilize and stimulate more than 1,200 dragon fruit trees so that they would be ready to harvest fruit around May.

But this year, due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, dragon fruit in the southern provinces is difficult to export to China, so the market is flooded with dragon fruit. Realizing that stimulating the tree to bear fruit at this time will be disadvantageous and affect the economy, Ms. Lac's family stopped trying to stimulate the tree to flower and bear fruit quickly.

The dragon fruit garden of more than 1,200 trees of Ms. Le Thi Lac's family in Quynh Thuan commune (Quynh Luu) has stopped producing fruit to cope with the Covid-19 epidemic. Photo: Viet Hung.

According to Ms. Lac, in addition to using biological drugs to stimulate fruit production, her family invested hundreds of millions of dong to install transformer stations and buy light bulbs to string around the garden to stimulate fruit production. However, because it is not necessary now, her family has stopped these steps to cope with the Covid-19 epidemic and preserve investment capital.

Mr. Dam Duy Tu in Quynh Tam commune (Quynh Luu) has not yet "stimulated" dragon fruit to produce fruit because the market is having difficulty selling it. His family has increased drip irrigation to moisten the soil these days to prevent the plants from flowering and fruiting.

Mr. Tu said that dragon fruit is a tropical plant, suitable for hot and sunny climates, drought-resistant, and cannot withstand waterlogging. If well fertilized, it will bloom easily and yield high yields. To make the tree bear fruit slowly, the family increased the watering capacity to 3-4 times/day to cool the tree. In addition, the family also adjusted the amount of fertilizer appropriately, not adding too much fertilizer but only adding organic microbial fertilizer instead of manure to help the tree maintain growth.

In addition to not stimulating fruit production, Mr. Dam Duy Tu in Quynh Tam commune uses regular drip irrigation to limit flowering. Photo: Viet Hung.

“For this dragon fruit crop, my family invested 500 million VND to install a drip irrigation system. Although the initial investment cost of the Israeli drip irrigation method is quite high, the input cost is reduced by 3 times compared to flood irrigation in dry weather conditions. Currently, my family only waters the plants, prunes old and diseased branches, cleans the garden, and takes care of the existing shoots, waiting for a favorable opportunity to resume production,” said Mr. Dao Duy Tu.

Quynh Luu currently has about 10 hectares of dragon fruit growing area concentrated in the communes of Quynh Tam, Quynh Doi, Quynh Thuan... with about 3,000 trees. In addition to the natural fruiting season around May-August, households also process dragon fruit to bear fruit in the off-season by using night lighting techniques - three crops a year (one crop every three months). However, due to the complicated situation of the Covid-19 epidemic, people are "holding back" on dragon fruit to wait....