Many farmers in the area focus on growing specialty fruit trees in the organic direction to improve product quality, protect consumers' health and contribute to environmental protection. The 70-year-old mangosteen garden of Mr. Vuong Hoang Lam's family, An Thanh ward, Thuan An city is one of the typical trees with good growth, sweet fruit with the flavor of "Lai Thieu mangosteen".
Mr. Vuong Hoang Lam in the mangosteen garden takes care of his family's organic methods
The first impression when we entered the mangosteen garden of Mr. Vuong Hoang Lam's family was quite spacious and airy. In particular, the mangosteen garden of Mr. Lam's family is staggered with a fairly wide distance, up to 10m. Lam explained, such a planting method will help make full use of the space. If two trees are planted in a peer-to-peer manner, when the big tree's branches touch each other, the lower branch that is shaded from the sun will automatically die. With an area of more than half an acre, Mr. Lam's garden only grows 2 mangosteen roots, all trees are luxuriant and green.
Mr. Lam confided, to have a mangosteen garden full of vitality as today is thanks to the effort and enthusiasm of his grandfather built. In the past, this place was a swampy field with a lot of alum, his grandfather used a canoe to go to the big river, waiting for the water to dry up to collect mud to fill the muddy field. Just like that, after a few years, the swamp could be filled up and the ditches were cut out to release alum, and then began to plant mangosteen, the space between the two mangosteen trees planted with lemons, taking profits from lemons to raise mangosteen.
“At that time, there were no chemical fertilizers, all organic fertilizers. Later, the family makes use of ash, cow manure, and chicken manure to compost for 1-2 years, then fertilize the tree, add lime to neutralize the alum. Organic fertilizer plants "eat" slowly but stably, plants are not "picked up" too quickly and then lack nutrients leading to failure. Although the mangosteen garden has been around for a long time, the tree is not exhausted and the roots are strong. One of the benefits of the organic method is that the fruit quality is very good, the sweetness and sugar are stable,” added Mr. Lam.
To protect the environment as well as the health of family members, Mr. Lam still uses traditional methods of weeding, without spraying. He believes that the basic mangosteen tree has few worms, if the environment is kept clean, the natural enemies will develop, which will kill the harmful worms. Thanks to organic farming, the mangosteen garden of Mr. Lam's family produces large fruits at a very high rate, on average, the garden harvests 100kg, reaching about 70% of large bamboo shoots.
This year mangosteen is in good season, Mr. Lam estimates that each tree will yield about 150kg/crop. Many people already know the quality of the family's mangosteen, so they can pick it up and sell it. Because the number of fruits is more than every year, after the harvest, Mr. Lam will use quality microbiological fertilizers of clear origin to nourish the tree, take care of and supplement with adequate nutrition.
Mr. Lam is one of the few people of the next generation who are trying their best to preserve and promote the local traditional specialty fruit orchards. With the current rapid urbanization rate, it is precious to keep the pristine mangosteen garden. When the environment is increasingly polluted, increasing the consequences, organic farming will help reduce the introduction of toxic substances into the environment and balance the ecosystem.
According to Mr. Dang Tan Loc, Director of the Agricultural Service Center of Thuan An City, before there was no chemical fertilizer, farmers had completely grown organically. Later on, for fruit trees, organic fertilizer is still the main thing, the effect of organic farming is that the tree grows better and is more sustainable, contributing to environmental protection. Currently, it is estimated that about 80% of farmers grow mangosteen organically, the rest is a combination of organic and chemical fertilizers.
TIEN HANH
