Growing organic dragon fruit in Uong Bi hill land

As a longtime irrigation engineer, due to the nature of his work, Mr. Nguyen Ton Quyen often has to go from South to North. Especially, while working in the Mekong Delta provinces , Mr. Quyen realized that he had a strong passion for agriculture. 

Looking at the fields of ripe red dragon fruit, each fruit is round and succulent, Quyen cherishes a plan to build a dragon fruit garden for himself. After working for a long time in Uong Bi City (Quang Ninh), he decided to build a dragon fruit farm here.

In 2015, on a 5 ha hilly land in Quang Trung ward (Uong Bi city), Mr. Quyen imported red flesh dragon fruit from a prestigious research institute on cultivation. This is a high yielding variety that is popular with consumers.

Mr. Quyen's red flesh dragon fruit tree can be harvested 9-10 times/year until the fruiting period. Harvest time starts from April to November. On average, each batch of fruit has an output of 3-5 tons, about 40-50 tons of dragon fruit a year. With the selling price of 25,000 VND/kg, each year the dragon fruit garden gives an income of more than 1 billion VND.

Mr. Quyen said that dragon fruit was grown by him completely in the organic direction. To ensure the correct process, Mr. Quyen is very careful from the stage of planting land, watering, fertilizer to how to take care of the plants according to the secret that he himself learns and learns from people with long experience.

According to Mr. Quyen, organic dragon fruit cultivation brings double, even tripled profits compared to the traditional way of growing, because inherently this fruit tree is not too costly to care for.

Mr. Quyen's dragon fruit garden uses organic fertilizer made from rotted chicken manure with rice husk and powdered lime. According to Mr. Quyen, chicken manure is said to contain high organic content as well as sodium, photo, and potassium content, which is far superior to goat manure or buffalo manure.

Thanks to its high content of nutrients, chicken manure is highly appreciated for its use to supplement soil for fruit crops.

On average, each year, a dragon fruit tree is fertilized with 30kg of organic fertilizer, divided into 2 times, when the tree is flowering and when it is harvested. "This is the period when the plant needs to add the most nutrients, so if provided with enough nutrients, it will help the tree to be healthy, to produce delicious and sweet fruit", Quyen said.

Dragon fruit garden is watered according to Israeli technology. Accordingly, a system of water pipes will be controlled to drip irrigation for each stump with a certain dose. This system will certainly save more water than conventional irrigation but still ensure the necessary amount of water to provide to the plants.

In particular, due to organic farming, the dragon fruit garden is completely free of pesticides. In order for the fruit to have a beautiful and eye-catching skin, Quyen uses clear lime water to spray the fruit soot. This way helps him save costs, does not affect the quality of the fruit, besides, it also helps the tree to be stronger and healthier.

Currently, Mr. Quyen's red flesh dragon fruit is consumed at supermarkets and apartments in Uong Bi, Ha Long and Hanoi cities.

"Recently, despite the complicated development of the Covid-19 epidemic , my products are still sold out. In the next time, we will double our output to supply the market. In addition, I will invest more in a cold storage system to preserve products, register OCOP products and apply stamps so that consumers can know the origin and production process of the product", Mr. Quyen happily. speak.

Mr. Pham Van Su, deputy economic department of Uong Bi city, said that in 2017, Uong Bi had a plan to develop and improve the quality of red flesh dragon fruit into a key product. Therefore, the city has advised, supported and mobilized households growing red flesh dragon fruit to establish Uong Bi dragon fruit cooperative in order to bring red flesh dragon fruits to the market and improve value and increase income for people. people.

“Currently, Uong Bi city has planned a concentrated dragon fruit growing area, gradually bringing this fruit tree to become a local brand. In the immediate future, require specialized departments to develop plans and have a plan to support the construction of a warehouse to preserve dragon fruit, and at the same time introduce the cooperative to participate in investment promotion activities, look for partners. Product consumption. In addition, the city also requires cooperative members to ensure a safe dragon fruit growing process," added Mr. Su.

Source: Pham Hieu - Van Ngo - Nong san Viet