Go to Ring village (H’Bong commune, Chu Se district, Gia Lai) to visit the Huong chi longan garden of Mr. Pham Manh Tuong (51 years old), really impressed by the lush, shady longan garden that is coming in. flowering and fruiting season.
H’Bong commune is located on a large hill, where it suffers from long droughts all year round. People in the commune only know how to raise cows and grow noodles to make a living.
Finding another direction, Mr. Tuong boldly tested the longan growing model. After only many years, his longan garden grew lushly. People in the commune also could not believe that longan trees could grow on this barren land.
Just pruning longan branches, Mr. Pham Manh Tuong said that in 2010 he and his family moved from Hai Phong to Gia Lai trading agricultural products. At that time, he saw a lot of people’s land in the area deserted due to the drought and the soil was barren and difficult to cultivate.
After many months of learning about local economic models, Mr. Tuong boldly introduced the seeds. Huong chi longan was planted on a trial basis in this barren land.
Before planting, Mr. Tuong learned about off-season longan care techniques on the internet, television, books and newspapers. Not only that, he also visited and learned from a number of models in the Northern provinces. He wants to promote the advantages of the Huong chi longan variety and avoid the risk of pests and diseases during tree care.
“Once established After learning more about the Huong Chi longan variety, I rented more than 10 hectares of abandoned land from farmers in Ring village to grow it on a trial basis. Next, I hired an excavator to dig and level the beds to prepare for sowing,” Mr. Tuong recounted the first days of planting the Huong chi longan variety from the North on Gia Lai land.
According to Mr. Tuong, the soil in H’Bong commune is mostly rocky and is very suitable for this longan variety. The weather here is harsh but does not affect the longan tree much. It is important for farmers to avoid the growing season It rains because there are two distinct seasons in Gia Lai.
In 2012, he went to Hai Duong to buy more than 4,000 Huong Chi longan seedlings to plant on a plot of about 8 hectares of land At that time, he invested hundreds of millions of dong in an irrigation system and workers to take care of longan trees.
Since the day he started building Mr. Tuong’s longan garden, it has blossomed and harvested. Seeing that the longan garden initially went well and produced a lot of fruit, Mr. Tuong destroyed his 2-hectare pepper garden to plant 1,000 more Huong chi longan trees.
“The off-season longan growing profession is quite elaborate. To have longan “For high quality products, growers must apply scientific and technical advances, use fertilizers, pesticides, and properly prune branches to achieve high yields. Timely detect pests and diseases to avoid spreading to the whole garden,” Mr. Tuong said. .
According to Mr. Tuong, in addition to choosing varieties with safe origins, Tell growers to pay attention to care techniques. The first one month period is when the tree begins to sprout and needs the most care. At this time, growers need to regularly observe to kill leaf-eating insects that affect the growth and development of the tree.
The most important factor for longan fruit to grow well is the removal stage. manure. Growers use a lot of manure to fertilize plants and minimize the use of chemical pesticides. Each season, the longan will be fertilized 3 times before harvesting.
In addition, cutting branches is also very important to stimulate the longan to grow well.
The longan is planted after 2 years is flowering. From flowering to harvest is 7 months. When the longan begins to be harvested, Mr. Tuong prunes the branches, leaving each tree with only 30 – 40kg of fruit. With care techniques, growers can adjust longan off-season to sell at high prices.
With a selling price at the garden of 20,000 – 25,000 VND/kg per year, his longan garden earns a profit of more than 300 million VND after deducting costs. His consumer market is not only in the province but also outside the province such as Hue, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City.
After that success, many farmers in the area came to visit and learn from experience.
According to Mr. Tuong Up to now, in Chu Se district, many farmers have converted ineffective trees to growing Huong chi longan. That also made him excited because he could help many households escape poverty.
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