Additional pollination, forcing custard apples to produce off-season, Nghe An farmers earn good profits

High yield thanks to pollination

Mr. Le Van Quang's household in Kim Nghia hamlet, Nghi An commune (Vinh city) grows 200 custard apple trees. Currently, the harvest season is in full swing, and each day, Mr. Quang supplies the market with about 2-3 quintals of custard apples. The selling price at the beginning of the season was up to 50,000 - 60,000 VND/kg, now it fluctuates between 30,000 - 40,000 VND/kg, with each custard apple tree yielding an average of 30-50 kg of fruit during the business period.

Mr. Quang said: “Before, my family only planted a few trees to eat. Later, we saw that custard apple trees were suitable for the soil and climate, and were also easy to sell, so we expanded the area. On average, each year (2 crops), each custard apple tree brings in an income of 1-1.5 million VND.”

In Nghi An commune, custard apple trees have now become the main tree in the household garden economy. It is estimated that the whole commune has about 10 hectares of custard apple trees, mainly concentrated in Kim Nghia hamlet. Many households have about 300-400 trees, while small households have a few dozen custard apple trees in their gardens.

In recent years, in order to increase the economic efficiency of custard apple trees, people in Nghi An, Nghi Duc (Vinh City), Nghi Thai (Nghi Loc) communes have applied techniques to intensive custard apple cultivation. Accordingly, the method of artificial pollination for custard apples has been successfully applied by households.

Ms. Pham Thi Phuong - a custard apple grower in Nghi Duc commune, said: "Custard apples have many flowers but the fruit set rate is low, so if we completely depend on nature, the efficiency and productivity will be low. To have high productivity and yield, we apply additional pollination for custard apples."

According to Ms. Phuong’s experience, before pollination, growers must choose to pick flowers with long petals and pistils that have begun to turn opaque white to collect pollen. After picking, all the flowers are put in a sealed paper bag and left overnight for the flowers to bloom and the pollen to fully ripen. The next morning, all the petals are removed, the pollen is shaken off, and then pollinated.

Flowers selected for pollination are newly bloomed flowers, with evenly separated petals; just use a pollinator to collect pollen, then gently push the tip of the bamboo stick and rotate it evenly so that the pollen sticks to the pistil bundle on the tree. Pollinated flowers will be marked with a mark on the tip of the petal; the flower that blooms first is pollinated first, the flower that blooms later continues to be pollinated the next time. In particular, pollination is only done on sunny days, because on rainy and windy days, the pollen will not stick to the pistil. Thanks to this technique, the rate of custard apples setting fruit reaches 90%.

Taking advantage of the strong regeneration properties of custard apple trees, growers have cut old shoots so that the trees grow new shoots with flowers, then pollinate the flowers to produce late-season fruit. Instead of only one main crop each year in July-August as before, custard apples now also produce a late-season harvest around October-November. Late-season custard apples require less care, less investment costs, and the selling price is higher than the main crop.

“Late-season custard apples mostly grow inside the tree trunk, so they are larger in size and sell for a higher price than main-season custard apples. Therefore, the yield of late-season custard apples may be lower, but the income can be equivalent to that of main-season custard apples. However, to be able to grow custard apples in separate seasons, the tree branches must be old and the canopy must be relatively sparse so that sunlight can penetrate and cause buds to sprout inside the tree trunk,” said Mr. Le Quang.

Branding for custard apple

In Nghia Hieu commune, Nghia Dan district, custard apple trees were planted about 30 years ago but only became a commodity and a key crop in the development of the hill garden economy about 5 years ago. The whole commune has about 8 hectares of custard apples, grown by 30 households, of which, there are about 4 hectares of custard apples grown in concentration, the most is Mr. Nguyen Quang Trung's household with 1.1 hectares, Mr. Cao Thanh Vinh's household with 0.7 hectares, and Mr. Nguyen Phuong Duong's household with 0.5 hectares.

In addition to intensive custard apple cultivation experience such as leaf stripping, branch pruning, and fertilizing techniques to produce high yield, custard apple growers in Nghia Hieu commune also introduce new custard apple varieties such as Thai custard apple and Taiwanese custard apple...

“Thai custard apples have a beautiful appearance, the custard apple eyes on each fruit are very even, the small weight is 3 fruits/kg, and most of them are up to 0.5 to 0.8 kg/fruit. The quality of Thai custard apples is sweet and chewy, with few seeds, a lot of flesh, and is cool to eat. Thai custard apples also have a yield of 4.5 tons/ha, and the selling price is very high, up to 80,000 VND/kg, more than double that of traditional custard apples. Thanks to that, the economic efficiency is also higher,” said Mr. Cao Thanh Vinh, a custard apple grower in Son Mong hamlet, Nghia Hieu commune.

In particular, in order to create a connection between custard apple growers, share experiences in planting and caring for custard apple trees, and provide timely information on market prices for custard apple growers, the Nghia Hieu Commune Custard Apple Growing Cooperative was established.

“Long-time, experienced growers guide new growers on the process of planting and caring for custard apple trees. High-yield custard apple varieties are brought in for testing by people. Attention is paid to building the Nghia Hieu custard apple brand on digital platforms.

"Nghia Hieu custard apples are certified by VietGAP and achieve 3 OCOP stars, so the selling price is basically stable. Traders buy everything as soon as they are harvested, bringing high income to growers," said Mr. Phan Trung Vinh - Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Nghia Hieu commune.