Looking at the 2-hectare lotus garden after 4 years of starting his business, Mr. Vu Thanh Toan (33 years old, from Thai Binh) said that each month he supplies the market with 1,000-2,000 plants and bulbs.
As for the lotus in pots, customers flock to help the owner sell 50-70 pots/day. Revenue from the lotus in pots model can reach hundreds of millions of VND per month.
Mr. Thanh Toan next to his "money-making" lotus pots (Photo: Character provided).
According to Mr. Toan, lotus is not only grown in ponds but also brought to pots and displayed in gardens. Therefore, the demand for this ornamental plant is increasing day by day. Above all, lotus is easy to grow so customers do not need to spend too much effort.
Mr. Toan said that Lotus loves the sun, is often grown in temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius and is suitable for direct sunlight for 4-6 hours or more.
In addition, lotus grows well in clean, chemical-free water. Growers only need to pump a steady amount of water into the pot.
"Lotus has always been known to live near mud, but the mud must be clean, taken naturally from ponds and fields. You can turn loam soil, mix it with a little water to make mud and then plant lotus," Toan shared.
Each year, the garden has two harvest seasons, in early May and August. Accordingly, each season will have 30-45 days for the lotus to bud, then bloom for 3-4 months. After each crop, the grower will prune the leaves when the lotus has formed tubers, to wait for the new blooming season.
The young man shared that lotus is a sun-loving plant, so it is common for growers to "sell their faces to the ground and their backs to the sky" (Photo: Character provided).
"Lotus rarely gets sick or has pests, so there's no need to spray pesticides. However, whether the lotus flowers well or not depends on the variety," he said.
It is known that the most popular type of lotus is the Japanese mini lotus. Although it is called that, Mr. Toan revealed that the breed is imported from Thailand and China.
"Because Japanese plants are small, lotus enthusiasts name them that way to make the product seem more sophisticated. But the truth is that they are not from Japan," Toan confided.
The owner of the lotus garden also revealed that there are many people in the market who do not understand clearly and buy lotus seeds to plant. In fact, those are Vietnamese lotus seeds but the seller advertises them as Japanese mini lotus, which makes him very worried.
"Japanese lotus is usually propagated from the plant and the seed tuber. People who buy the wrong one often end up with a plant that doesn't flower and the leaves are big," the owner revealed.
Lotus is easy to grow, flowers and lasts 3-4 months (Photo: Character provided).
Previously, Toan worked as a supervisor at a famous food company. With a salary of 12-15 million VND/month in 2015, the fact that he quit his job to start a business was like a "thunderbolt" to his family.
"At that time, my father strongly opposed it. Even when I came back to rent land to grow lotus, he went to tell the landowner not to rent it to me, because I had no agricultural experience at all," Toan said, laughing.
Loving agriculture, having a big ego and liking to… argue with his boss are the reasons why Mr. Toan submitted his resignation. Above all, he realized that lotus in pots was gradually becoming popular, profitable and easy to grow, but no one had done it yet. So, the young man started everything with the savings of 10 million VND.
Unable to borrow from his parents, Toan took the risk of borrowing 70 million VND from outside. Toan also sold his phone and other valuable items to raise money to renovate the premises and buy seeds.
20-hectare lotus garden of a 9X guy (Photo: Character provided).
"Business has never been easy, I don't know if it will be successful or not. But if you don't take risks, you can't do anything," the young man emphasized.
His family has a tradition of farming, so Toan both planted and consulted his mother. Toan posted his first products online and received support from many people. Toan sold each lotus pot for 150,000-500,000 VND. Many expensive pots can cost up to 5 million VND/pot.
More and more visitors come, Toan also opens his 2-hectare lotus garden for tourists to visit. This helps increase profits, Toan also creates jobs for workers in his hometown. The young man is renovating to expand his 30-hectare lotus garden, aiming at the market of lotus flowers in vases.
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