The Party Secretary of the commune has a "love affair" with the "queen" tea tree

Success from master thesis

The stilt house of Chau Kim Commune Party Secretary Ha Minh Tuan is nestled in the middle of his family's forest in Co Muong village. Knowing that we were learning about trees,yellow flower tea, Mr. Tuan excitedly gave us a pair of knee-high rubber boots, then led the way to each yellow tea tree that he had just transplanted from the forest to plant; to visit the yellow tea area that was 1-3 years old in the natural forest with many layers of dense trees.

Chau Kim Commune Party Secretary Ha Minh Tuan next to the yellow flower tea tree he chose as the parent tree. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Mr. Tuan said that the easily identifiable feature of the yellow tea tree is that its leaves are large and thick, very different from other leaves in the forest. However, its young leaves are very susceptible to drying out if exposed to sunlight, so this type of tree must be planted under the natural forest canopy covered by many layers of trees. Therefore, when planting this type of tree, the first thing to do is to protect the forest well.

From 2019 to now, he has planted thousands of yellow tea trees that he propagated in his family's 2.5-hectare forest. Although the first batch of trees is only 3 years old, they have already bloomed. The reason why he can plant such a large number of trees in such a large forest area is because yellow tea trees can be planted densely, with a distance of more than 1 meter between each tree.

While resting on a large rock in his family’s forest, Mr. Tuan told about his “fate” with the yellow tea tree: By chance, during a forest patrol with local people in 2015, he discovered a lot of natural yellow tea trees in the dense forest, but most of them were cut down by people, even the whole tree trunk to collect many by-products. At that time, the products obtained from yellow tea were sold at high prices, just need to be taken out of the forest, there were traders who bought them for about 300,000 VND/kg.

The yellow tea tree flowers from the leaf axils. Photo: Xuan Hoang

I think, if there is no solutionconserveSoon, the natural yellow tea trees in Que Phong forest will be destroyed and exhausted. Therefore, when he entered the master's program in Plant Science, he immediately decided to research and breed this tea species.

The master's thesis on yellow tea plant breeding was painstakingly carried out by Mr. Ha Minh Tuan, with the direct guidance of lecturers from Vinh University. More fortunately, during the process of carrying out the topic, he was assisted by a farmer in Tam Dao (Vinh Phuc) who had previously succeeded inyellow tea seedling nursery, enthusiastically help with some experience and methods of growing cuttings from this valuable plant variety.

With the combined efforts of university lecturers and the practical experience of his companion in Tam Dao, Mr. Tuan carried out 3 methods of cultivating yellow tea plants at the same time in a nursery: cuttings, grafting (grafting with So tree) and sowing seeds; in which, the most successful method was the propagation by cuttings, achieving over 80% of good germination rate.

“I have been to many places with yellow tea trees in the district, but Chau Kim commune is the place with the largest number of natural yellow tea trees in Que Phong. Therefore, to get good quality cuttings, I went into the forest to choose branches with many flowers, brought them back and cut them into 25cm long cuttings for propagation. By July 2019, the first batch of cuttings was evaluated as successful, all hundreds of seedlings initially planted in the family forest, all grew well, promising to become a yellow tea forest in the future,” said Mr. Ha Minh Tuan.

The yellow flower tea tree was transplanted from the natural forest by Mr. Ha Minh Tuan for propagation. Photo: Xuan Hoang

“All beginnings are hard”, on weekends, Mr. Tuan packed his lunch and went into the forest, looking for ancient yellow tea trees, bringing back branches to make cuttings for nursery, and more and more people in the district knew about him and met him directly to get instructions on how to plant. Up to now, he has provided over 250,000 yellow tea seedlings to people in the district, planted in natural forests.

According to Mr. Tuan, the yellow flower tea tree will flower after about 4-5 years of planting, so in about 4 years in Que Phong district, the output of this "queen" tea will increase, because now people are aware of protecting the forest, have a source of income from the forest, so yellow flower tea will be a significant source of income for people in the future.

Development according to the chain link

Yellow flower tea has high value and many uses for human health. Que Phong district can be said to be the capital of this type of tea, concentrated in the communes: Chau Kim, Dong Van, Tien Phong... In recent years, during the blooming season of yellow flower tea, ethnic minorities in the district go to the forest to harvest and sell to traders at high prices, fresh flowers cost 300,000 VND/kg, if dried, they cost over 5 million VND/kg. Therefore, the orientation of the district will create products with linkages so that the products are better consumed.

Dried yellow flower tea, known as the "queen" of teas. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Talking about Chau Kim Commune Party Secretary Ha Minh Tuan, not only district and commune officials but also local people recognize him as the first person to successfully propagate this valuable tree species in Que Phong land.

Mr. Bui Van Hien - Vice Chairman of Que Phong District People's Committee said that yellow flower tea is a valuable local product with high economic value, not available everywhere. Therefore, in order for yellow flower tea to become a major commodity, the district will use the capital from the National Target Program to invest in expanding the area of ​​yellow flower tea trees according to the chain. When Mr. Ha Minh Tuan's yellow flower tea seedlings are officially recognized by the professional agency, this will be the main source of seedlings for the locality to expand the area.