DA LAT FARM GROWING RASPBERRY: 6 years and the tree is still "youthful"

With a plant that can be grown once and eaten for decades, without needing to change the variety according to the season, harvesting sweet fruit, making tea from the fruit stalk, making juice from the fruit flesh; raspberries are becoming a typical product of Nga Tin Farm - a farm on the outskirts of Da Lat.

Mr. Huynh Tran Tuyen in the raspberry garden for 6 years

Mr. Huynh Tran Tuyen is a young farmer. A native of Dat Lang village, Xuan Truong commune, Da Lat city, Mr. Huynh Tran Tuyen is familiar with persimmon trees, coffee trees and traditional la-gim varieties. Since 2018, his family's Nga Tin Farm has changed its production direction, switching to growing a type of tree that is quite new to suburbanites: raspberries.

“We, Dat Lang farmers, usually grow persimmons, vegetables, and coffee, but no one has ever grown raspberries. My family was also very surprised when we first approached this new plant. However, after researching, we learned that this is a perennial fruit tree, planted once and eaten for many years, so we decided to try it,” said Huynh Tran Tuyen. Dalat raspberries need to be grown in greenhouses. Therefore, he built 5 hectares of greenhouses to plant 2,000 raspberry plants. The raspberry plants grow very quickly. After only four months of planting, the plants began to flower, bear fruit, and be harvested.

According to Mr. Tuyen, for raspberry trees to flower and bear good fruit, they need to be kept airy and at a height of 1.2 - 1.3 m. Therefore, his family trims them once a month, cutting off any old branches. What is very special is that after cutting the branches, new shoots will grow immediately. After 15 days, the new shoots will reach a length of 80 cm and will continue to flower and bear fruit. Because of their ability to regenerate and grow strongly, raspberries are continuously rejuvenated. According to Mr. Tuyen, there are gardens that have been planted for 10 or 15 years and still produce regular harvests. Like his raspberry garden, which has been planted for six years, the trees are still very young and have stable yields.

“Because we grow raspberries in a greenhouse without natural rainwater, we need to have a proper care regimen to make them last. Like the raspberries in our garden, they require a lot of organic fertilizer. The plants do not need much water but they need to be watered regularly. Currently, the garden is watered by a sprinkler system, four times a day and each time with a small amount of water. Raspberries are a direct fruit tree, so the problem of preventing pests and diseases is strictly managed by Nga Tin Farm,” said Mr. Huynh Tran Tuyen. Mr. Tuyen stretched strips of tape in the raspberry garden, which are used to trap insects. The insect-trapping strips have helped to minimize the number of harmful insects, keeping the garden safe.

Raspberries are a type of fruit related to mulberries, so they are quite soft. Therefore, harvesting, preserving and transporting raspberries over long distances is also a challenge for gardeners. The fruit is soft, so gardeners usually harvest it when it is just ripe and still retains a certain hardness. The fruit is wrapped in specialized paper and put in boxes, and sent to consumers. According to Mr. Tuyen, raspberries are harvested every day. In the rainy season, the family harvests from 5 to 10 kg a day. In the dry season, when the trees are suitable for the climate, the family harvests 20 kg a day. His family's raspberry garden grows two types: red raspberries, which have small, sweet fruits, and black raspberries, which have very large fruits but are slightly sour. Nga Tin Farm mainly supplies raspberries to supermarket chains in Ho Chi Minh City at an ex-garden price of 200,000 - 250,000 VND/kg.

In addition to raspberries supplied to supermarkets for consumers to eat fresh, Nga Tin Farm also produces tea from raspberry stems. Mr. Tuyen said that during the right season, when there are many ripe fruits, the ripe fruits that cannot be transported far away, his family harvests and processes them into fermented juice. Fermented raspberry juice has a deep red color, sweet and slightly sour taste, very suitable for women and children, so it is favored by the market. In addition, the fruit stems are harvested and dried by the family to make tea that helps to sleep well; raspberry tea is currently sold for 1.5 million VND/kg. Many families with elderly people, young children and people who need a good night's sleep place many orders. This is also a source of income for Nga Tin Farm. Mr. Tuyen said that although growing raspberries does not have a sudden harvest like growing some other plants, in return, the income is very stable for many years, the output is guaranteed. Planting trees and having planned output, this model brings stability to farmers.

Mr. Le Thin - Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Xuan Truong commune assessed the raspberry growing model of Mr. Huynh Tran Tuyen's family as a good model. Mr. Tuyen has found a new direction, growing fruit trees in a greenhouse, and at the same time finding a stable output, bringing Xuan Truong a special agricultural product. Nga Tin Farm has also achieved VietGAP certification for many years, safe cultivation and Xuan Truong is aiming to make raspberries an OCOP product of the commune.

Source: http://baolamdong.vn/kinh-te/202408/nong-trai-a-lat-trong-phuc-bon-tu-6-nam-cay-van-thanh-xuan-b2d2894/