Orange orchard thrives after one year of fruiting and one year of rest

BAC GIANG Determining that Canh orange is a difficult tree, Mr. Dinh cultivates it organically, each year only allowing half of the garden to bear fruit, pruning and caring for the other half to let the tree rest.

Model of organic production of Canh oranges grafted on Dien grapefruit roots by Mr. Le Thanh Dinh. Photo: Tung Dinh.

Mr. Le Thanh Dinh in Thong village, Tru Huu commune, Luc Ngan district (Bac Giang) owns a model of 1.7 hectares of Canh oranges produced organically, using organic fertilizers and biological pesticides, bringing high economic value. Looking at the orange trees full of green fruit, few people would have guessed that this was originally a Dien grapefruit garden.

Visiting the model of Mr. Le Thanh Dinh's house recently, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Hoang Trung highly appreciated the people's proactive grasp and conversion of farming models. Deputy Minister Hoang Trung also praised Mr. Dinh's family for promptly applying organic production methods, using organic fertilizers and biological pesticides to ensure safe products, contributing to the agricultural production movement towards organic, ecological, sustainable, environmentally friendly, bringing high value.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Hoang Trung (4th from right) visits Mr. Dinh's grafted orange production model on Dien grapefruit roots. Photo: Tung Dinh.

In 2012, Mr. Dinh started farming with Dien grapefruit trees, following the movement of the people in the village and commune at that time. However, although the Dien grapefruit trees produced fruits regularly and of guaranteed quality, their economic value gradually decreased every year. He began to find ways to change direction to increase the economic value of the garden, starting with the V2 orange variety in 2018.

Starting with half of the garden, Mr. Dinh experimented with grafting V2 oranges onto Dien grapefruit trees with an area of ​​about 9,000m2. However, the consumption and selling price of V2 oranges were not as expected by his family, so he decided to change the crop once again by grafting Canh oranges in 2020. Up to now, in his orange garden, there are still scattered grapefruits growing from old branches that have not been pruned.

Thanks to organic farming, Mr. Dinh's orange garden is always healthy, durable, with dark green leaves and high quality fruit. Photo: Tung Dinh.

"At that time, many people in Luc Ngan district grafted oranges onto grapefruits, but few dared to invest like me," said Mr. Dinh. The reason was that to make the grafting process smooth, he spent 200 million VND to hire highly skilled experts to do the grafting within 1 year (2020). However, that year, the grafting was just done, the weather was not favorable, so the orange yield was not high, the amount of money to pay the experts was reduced by tens of millions of VND, considered as sharing the risk.

After mastering the technique, Mr. Dinh switched to grafting himself. Currently, his family owns more than 1,000 Canh orange trees grafted on Dien grapefruit roots, which are more than 10 years old and yield 40-50 tons of fruit each year, with a revenue of over 2.5 billion VND. Determining that Canh orange is a difficult crop, each year Mr. Dinh only lets half of the garden bear fruit, pruning and caring for the other half so that the trees can rest, ensuring sustainable development.

Mr. Dinh applies the girdling technique to orange trees. Photo: Tung Dinh.

Regarding fertilizer, Mr. Dinh uses organic fertilizer made from buffalo manure and phosphate for 1 year before applying it to the plants. He uses biological pesticides to control spider mites and planthoppers. In addition, because the roots of Dien grapefruit trees spread out and are very shallow, weeding must be done entirely by hand, without using herbicides. More than 1,000 grapefruit trees (grafted with Canh oranges) on an area of ​​1.7 hectares of Mr. Dinh's family also use drip irrigation to save water and prevent waterlogging for the trees.

At this unique model, Deputy Minister Hoang Trung highly appreciated the dynamism, creativity, and experience in caring for plants of gardeners in Luc Ngan district. These models are all produced in an organic direction, applying scientific and technical advances, ensuring safety in pest prevention, contributing to improving the quality and value of crops.

In addition, there are professional experiences in grafting and root banding, along with reasonable crop rotation for fruiting and non-fruiting trees, creating conditions for trees and soil to rest and regenerate nutrients for the next growth period. According to Deputy Minister Hoang Trung, this is a creative way of doing things by farmers in Luc Ngan district, which needs to be widely replicated.

Mr. Dinh's orange garden absolutely does not use herbicides, prioritizes the use of only organic fertilizers, biological pesticides and invests in a drip irrigation system. Photo: Tung Dinh.

According to Deputy Minister Hoang Trung, in order to develop large fruit growing areas associated with restructuring the agricultural sector, the agricultural sector of Bac Giang province needs to continue focusing on replicating effective production models, in the direction of commodities, applying high technology, creating safe products, enhancing value, and sustainable economic efficiency.

In addition, the locality needs to focus on linkages in agricultural production; provide plant care services, agricultural product preservation and packaging services; strengthen trade promotion, brand promotion, and find stable consumption markets to increase the value of the province's agricultural products.

Source: https://nongsanviet.nongnghiep.vn/vuon-cam-sung-suc-nho-mot-nam-ra-qua-mot-nam-nghi-ngoi-d389487.html