Leave the city to return to the countryside to do farming
Born in 1994, graduated from Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry, after many years working in the city named after Uncle Ho, Mr. Cong decided to "leave the city and return to the countryside" to do agriculture.
Mr. Cong shared the story of growing orchids in Binh Phuoc: At first, I applied to work at a flower farm in Cu Chi district, Ho Chi Minh City because it was my field of study. Then, seeing the profits that the flower industry brought to growers, I focused on learning from the garden owner's experience and had the intention of growing flowers in my hometown Binh Phuoc.
After consideration, the flower that Mr. Cong chose was the mokara orchid. This flower has many advantages such as: beautiful, large petals, many flowers on a branch, bright colors, blooming almost all year round.
The tree is very strong, grows strongly in height, the leaves are long but not tightly tied to the trunk, the tree roots a lot and quickly, and is rarely infected with pests or diseases.
In particular, this flower is very suitable for Binh Phuoc's climate. With support from his family, in 2019, Mr. Cong quit his job and returned to his hometown to start a business.
Stable income from mokara orchids
Mokara orchids flower after about 6 months of planting, but the highest yield is achieved when they are 1 year old.
Initially, with his family's capital, Mr. Cong built a garden of more than 1,000 square meters of land. To save costs, he did everything himself, from building the greenhouse frame to building flower beds.
According to Mr. Cong, this flower likes the sun but needs to be built a greenhouse, using black nets to reduce about 50% of sunlight and prevent damage from insects. Next is to make flower beds, each bed can have 2-3 rows, 60cm-1.2m wide/bed.
Next, he prepared the growing medium, which was peanut shells. When he bought them, he had to treat them for pathogens before putting them in the planting beds. After a year of trial planting and seeing the effectiveness, he expanded the second garden to about 1,500 square meters.
“Growing this flower is not difficult, but you have to master the technique. At the same time, knowing the common diseases to handle them promptly will help the garden grow well,” Mr. Cong shared.
Mr. Tran Chi Cong (left cover) shares his experience in growing mokara orchids with leaders of Tan Hung commune, Hon Quang district (Binh Phuoc province) and youth union members in the area.
Mokara orchids bloom once a month, each plant has 2-3 flower branches. This flower species lasts about 2 months to fade, has many colors so it is favored by flower shops. Currently, Mr. Cong's mokara orchid garden is supplying to flower shops in Binh Long, Phuoc Long, Hon Quan.
The price of Mokara orchids ranges from 5,000-7,000 VND/branch. With this selling price, growers can recover their investment capital after more than 1 year of the garden yielding fruit.
The harvest time of Mokara orchids is relatively long, maybe 5-6 years, until the orchids are old and then uprooted and replanted. "My flower garden is always "sold out", not enough to supply the market" - Mr. Cong happily said.
To reduce labor and create uniformity in care to bring high productivity, Mr. Cong installed an automatic misting irrigation system.
Successful with his model, Mr. Cong is willing to share his experience in growing and caring for mokara orchids with youth union members and people around.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Trang, Vice Chairwoman of Tan Hung Commune People's Committee said: "Industrial orchid growing is a new economic model in Tan Hung, responding to the policy of transforming the agricultural economic structure in the locality. From the effectiveness of this model, we hope that youth union members and farmers will learn from the experience and apply it on suitable land areas, thereby increasing family income."
From the commercial orchid growing model of Mr. Tran Chi Cong, it can be seen that this is a flower species suitable for Binh Phuoc's climate and can be replicated in the province.
Sharing about his future plans, Mr. Cong said he plans to expand the area of Mokara orchid garden to supply the market. In addition, he plans to develop many other orchid varieties to create diversity and richness for the orchid garden.
According to Mr. Cong, starting a business in agriculture is always difficult, but if you have determination and decisiveness, you will definitely succeed.
“When it comes to orchids, many people think of gardens in Da Lat (Lam Dong province). However, Mokara orchids are not suitable for cold climates but prefer hot weather. Meanwhile, in Binh Phuoc, there are not many gardens growing this flower species.
If we grow successfully in Binh Phuoc, we will be able to compete with flower suppliers from other places due to the price advantage because we do not have to spend much on transportation. This is the main reason why I decided to grow Mokara orchids,” said Mr. Tran Tri Cong, Tan Hung commune, Hon Quan district, Binh Phuoc province.
Source: https://danviet.vn/trong-lan-quy-toc-lan-mokara-hoa-tuon-nhu-suoi-anh-nong-dan-binh-phuoc-co-luong-tot-20240830185347527.htm
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