The young man put aside his civil engineering degree to grow South American pineapples.
Báo Thanh niên•19/03/2024
Graduated from university with a degree in construction, Nguyen Pham Minh Chau (26 years old, residing in Phu Thu Ward, Cai Rang District, Can Tho City) turned to growing South American pineapples, with more than 150 different varieties.
Taking us on a tour of the South American pineapple garden of over 5,000 square meters , young man Nguyen Pham Minh Chau excitedly shared about this eye-catching, colorful plant.
Colorful South American pineapples grown in the garden
Photo: DUY TAN
Chau said that in 2019, while studying construction at Can Tho University, he became passionate about South American pineapples, so he bought 2 plants to grow. His passion grew, and in 2021, after graduating from university, Chau decided to put his degree aside and start a business with this plant in his home garden. Chau said that the growing medium for this plant is mainly coconut fiber and coconut chunks. The plant is easy to care for, watering once every other day. This is a sun-loving plant, so the more sunlight the plant has, the more beautiful its color, but it must be planted under an orchid net to ensure the best growth.
Nguyen Pham Minh Chau's South American pineapple garden has more than 10,000 plants, with more than 150 different lines.
South American pineapples are grown by Chau from seeds or separated from the mother plant. After the seedlings have taken root, Chau separates them to plant in a substrate for about a month before selling them; if planted for about 10 months, they will reach the same size as the mother plant. "Every month, I harvest 100 - 200 seedlings. After separation, seedlings can be sold immediately or after about a month of planting, they can be sold at a higher price. Recently, I have also sown seeds, but the growth time is longer than separating seedlings," Chau said.
South American pineapple plants are grown from seeds and separated from the mother plant.
The attraction of this plant is its color and uniqueness. There are still few gardens in the West that grow this plant. For the standard beautiful South American pineapple, the high price is the color, the stripes on the leaves. In particular, the tree with both stripes and flower spots will have the highest value. Bringing the South American pineapple home to plant, instead of planting fruit trees such as durian, jackfruit... in neighboring gardens, Chau surprised the people around and thought he was very daring. But time gradually proved that Chau's direction was correct, because the hobby of playing with this type of pineapple is becoming more and more popular. In addition to the South American pineapple, Chau's garden also has air plants and ornamental leaves. What is special is that thousands of large and small ornamental plants were collected from Thailand, brought back to domesticate and propagated. All types of plants in the 5,000 m2 garden are not planted in soil but only use coconut fiber, coconut blocks or hanging. The shelves for placing pots are also about 1 m above the ground. According to Chau, South American pineapple plants are often used to decorate home gardens, tourist areas, etc. Depending on each person's preferences, each type of ornamental plant can be cleverly placed in many different places such as: tree roots, rock holes to create a more beautiful and eye-catching landscape when arranged alternately to coordinate colors. Currently, Chau is one of the pioneers in Can Tho to grow this type of plant in large quantities. Chau's garden has about 10,000 plants, with more than 150 different lines, many beautiful colors. "South American pineapples and air plants are very easy to care for, can be kept separately or combined to create colorful beauty. All with the purpose of bringing fresh, new colors into urban life," Chau shared. South American pineapples are sold by Chau for 250,000 - 400,000 VND/plant. The largest consumer markets are in Hanoi, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City... Thanks to that, the young man Nguyen Pham Minh Chau has a decent and stable income.
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