Growing apples on the fields, Nam Dan farmers have a good harvest and good prices.
(Baonghean.vn) - In recent years, some households in Nam Tan commune, Nam Dan district have planted apple trees in the fields. At this time, the apple fields are in harvest season with quite high prices.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong's family in Hamlet 7, Nam Tan Commune (Nam Dan) has more than 2 sao of land, previously specialized in growing crops, but due to barren land, growing corn and peanuts had low economic efficiency. At the end of 2016, after learning about fruit tree growing models on TV, seeing that apple trees are easy to grow and produce fruit quickly, Ms. Phuong decided to invest in renovation, planting nearly 300 apple trees of D28 variety and Gia Loc sour apple.
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| Apple branches laden with early season fruit. Photo: Diep Phuong |
At first, she encountered many difficulties. Apples were grown in the fields, far from home, so cultivation and management were difficult. Moreover, her knowledge about apple trees was vague, so when the apples were affected by pests and diseases, she was confused about how to treat them, and weather problems also affected the productivity of the apples.
"Last year, when the apple trees were flowering and about to bear fruit, the apple orchard encountered strong winds from storm No. 2, which broke the flowers. This year, there were many worms, so even though the apple crop was good, it still affected the yield," said Ms. Phuong.
Later, thanks to learning from long-time apple growers and drawing on her own experience through the actual growing process, her apple orchard was full of fruit. Ms. Phuong shared: "Apple trees are easy to grow but "difficult", susceptible to pests and diseases. Therefore, care requires the grower to invest both effort and technique. Every time the tree has lush branches, it is necessary to prune the branches, keeping only 3-5 of the largest and healthiest branches for the tree to grow; the roots must be regularly mounded and weeded. The most important factor for the apple tree to grow well is the stage of removing manure. I use a lot of manure to fertilize the tree, minimizing the use of chemicals. Each apple season, the apple tree will be fertilized twice (the first time in March to nourish the tree, the second time in July to nourish the flowers and fruit) with a ratio of about 20-30 kg of manure/tree".
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| Farmers in Nam Tan commune harvest apples. Photo: Diep Phuong |
With nearly 300 apple trees, Ms. Phuong estimates to harvest 7 - 8 tons of fruit. Currently, traders buy at the garden for 35,000 VND/kg of D28 apple variety; 20,000 VND/kg of Gia Loc sour apple; earning about 200 million VND. Meanwhile, growing crops like before, an area of 2 sao only earns about 6 - 8 million VND/year.
Not far away, Mr. Nguyen Viet Minh's family in Hamlet 7, Nam Tan Commune has 2.5 hectares of land that used to grow acacia. In early 2017, they converted to growing fruit trees, and he devoted 1.5 hectares to growing apples. Up to now, more than 900 sugar apple trees are estimated to produce about 25 tons of apples, selling for 35,000 VND/kg.Talking about the secret to caring for apples to produce quality fruit, Mr. Minh said: "When the apple harvest is near, each tree will be fertilized with a little potassium to make the fruit sweeter. To prevent and kill pests, it is necessary to create an "insect nemesis" by crushing fresh ginger, camphor tablets, adding alcohol to a plastic bottle, punching a few small holes in the bottle to release the scent and then hanging it on the tree trunk, or buying insect-killing sheets that are widely available on the market. If the tree flowers and bears little fruit, you need to know how to score the branches to stimulate fruiting, and on hot days, you must water the tree regularly to provide enough moisture."
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| Nam Tan residents share that when the tree flowers and bears fruit, they need to know how to cut the branches to stimulate fruiting. Photo: Diep Puong |