Lighting up dragon fruit to produce fruit for sale during Tet

Gardeners in Binh Thuan have begun using lights to stimulate dragon fruit to bear fruit in the off-season for consumption during the upcoming Tet holiday.

These days, dragon fruit gardens in Ham Thuan Nam and Ham Thuan Bac districts are brightly lit at night. This is the time when local farmers set up shade and turn on lights to stimulate this specialty to produce fruit and sell it at high prices during Tet.

Dragon fruit garden in Ham My commune, Ham Thuan Nam district, lit up at night, November 2023. Photo: Viet Quoc

Mr. Tran Van Dong, 27 years old, in Dai Loc village, Ham Hiep commune (Ham Thuan Bac district) is checking the LED lights that were installed two days ago to prepare for the electricity. His family's large dragon fruit garden with more than 1,000 pillars has been cleared of grass. The light bulbs are evenly strung between two rows of pillars. "I put them in the middle so that the light will spread out, the dragon fruit branches will produce fruit," said Mr. Dong.

At around 9pm, Mr. Dong will pull the switch to keep the lights on all night. The garden owner does this for 20-22 days and then stops. About a week later, the dragon fruit vines will sprout small buds on the thorn axils. The buds will bloom into white flowers, then form green fruit. After more than 3 months, the dragon fruit will ripen and the farmers will harvest.

Mr. Tran Van Dong is connecting light bulbs to stimulate dragon fruit to bear fruit in the off-season, November 2023. Photo : Viet Quoc

About 10 km away, the dragon fruit garden of Ms. Vo Thi Hai in Lo To village, Ham Can commune (Ham Thuan Nam district) has more than 550 dragon fruit pillars on an area of ​​5,000 m2. Last week, she and her daughter cleaned the garden, removing diseased and weak dragon fruit branches, keeping the healthy branches. The garden owner had more than 1,000 8W LED bulbs strung along the rows of dragon fruit.

Ms. Hai said that every year, three and a half months before Tet, the family lights up to stimulate dragon fruit to produce fruit for sale near Tet (around December 15). "Dragon fruit during Tet usually sells for a higher price, so we turn on the lights in the off-season in the hope of earning more income," Ms. Hai said, adding that the price of dragon fruit during Tet is usually 15,000-20,000 VND per kg, when there is a shortage, the price goes up to 24,000-25,000 VND per kg, but there are years when the output is high and the price drops below 10,000 VND per kg.

Ms. Vo Thi Hai checks the dragon fruit garden which is under off-season lighting. Photo: Viet Quoc

According to many gardeners in Binh Thuan, the price of dragon fruit in the off-season is from 14,000 VND per kilogram or more, so gardeners can have a good income, because the cost of electricity, fertilizer, and labor costs are high. Gardeners with many people in the house who do everything from fertilizing, pruning branches to applying medicine to beautify the fruit... will have a higher income.

Mr. Phan Van Tan, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Binh Thuan, said that the whole province grows about 27,000 hectares of dragon fruit, yielding over 500,000 tons per year. Cultivated naturally, dragon fruit only bears fruit during the rainy season. To produce fruit in the off-season, garden owners must use electric lights in their gardens.

A dragon fruit garden can produce 2-3 off-season crops per year. Off-season cropping cannot be done more often, because if fruit is continuously produced, the dragon fruit vines will become exhausted and will quickly wither. After each crop, the garden owner must add fertilizer and nutrients for the tree to recover.

The technique of using lights to stimulate dragon fruit to bear fruit in the off-season has been applied by farmers in Binh Thuan since around the 1990s. At that time, a farmer in Ham Thuan Bac district accidentally installed a light bulb to warm a flock of ducks in the garden, and unexpectedly discovered that the dragon fruit pillars nearby were flowering. Since then, local growers have begun to apply the lighting technique to off-season production, producing fruit all year round.

After traditional incandescent lamps, farmers switched to compact lamps and now LED lamps which consume less electricity.

Vietnam

Source link: https://vnexpress.net/chong-den-kich-thanh-long-ra-trai-ban-dip-tet-4680634.html