Right after the Lunar New Year, farmers in the famous peach-growing villages of Thai Binh province rushed back to the fields, even busier than during the holiday.

In early January, the atmosphere of work in the orchards of Minh Tan commune (Dong Hung district, Thai Binh province ) is as bustling as before Tet. People are preparing the soil, moving trees, planting, fertilizing, and watering... all with great skill and efficiency.

Tens of thousands of peach tree saplings are quickly planted by gardeners in the empty spaces where the peach trees have been removed to decorate for the spring season. In Minh Tan, most of the peach trees for Tet are sold immediately, not rented out, so gardeners have to proactively prepare saplings for the new peach season from the previous year.

Following a successful Lunar New Year peach blossom harvest, Mr. Pham Ba Ngan's family in Hoang Duc village is now busy planting a new crop. Having secured seedlings from the previous year, after the Lunar New Year, Mr. Ngan had enough high-quality seedlings to transfer from the nursery to his new orchard, totaling 400 trees on 5 sao (approximately 0.5 hectares).

Vừa hết Tết, nông dân làng trồng đào nổi tiếng ở Thái Bình đã vội ra đồng, còn bận hơn trong Tết - Ảnh 1. — In this case, Mr. Nguyen Van Toan, from Minh Tan commune (Dong Hung district, Thai Binh province), planted more than 300 ornamental peach trees.

Mr. Ngan shared: "To ensure the trees grow well, the first step is to prepare the soil because peach trees prefer unfamiliar soil. Therefore, we must turn over the soil, add new soil to the garden, use a tiller to loosen the soil, create raised beds, then place the seedlings in rows, fertilize, and cover the base with soil. Every year, my family proactively sources seedlings to save costs and ensure a high survival rate. After planting, when the trees turn green, we proceed with grafting, bending, and pruning to create unique shapes and styles according to our wishes, fertilizing and watering correctly at the right time."

Growing and caring for peach trees is very elaborate, involving many stages, all of which must adhere to the correct procedures and techniques because even a mistake in any stage will affect the tree's development, shaping, and flowering at the right time later on.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thuan, from Hoang Duc village, said: "This past Tet season, my family earned 500 million VND from selling peach blossoms. This new season, we're planting 500 peach trees to sell to people celebrating Tet and about 3,000 seedlings for the next season, as the seedlings need to be grown a year in advance. After planting, we cultivate the soil, fertilize, and monitor the trees regularly to ensure timely application of pesticides. From planting until August, we have to take care of them regularly; if the soil is dry, we water immediately to maintain moisture for the trees to grow. In September, we stop caring for them and focus on pruning and shaping the trees."

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Toan from Hoang Duc village, who has over 10 years of experience growing peach trees, peach trees cannot tolerate waterlogging, so they must be planted in high ground, on raised beds with loose soil and drainage ditches. They must be planted in well-ventilated areas, and watered immediately after planting to help the trees recover and grow quickly. In September, bark girdling and root rotation are carried out to limit the tree's growth, and in November, the leaves are removed to encourage the tree to enter the budding stage.

Minh Tan commune is famous for its ornamental peach tree cultivation and the production of products made from lucky bamboo. In particular, peach tree cultivation for the Tet (Lunar New Year) market has long been a profession that has helped many families here become wealthy. Therefore, the people of Minh Tan, especially in the two villages of Hoang Duc and Dinh Phung, have actively converted less productive rice fields to peach tree cultivation. To date, the entire commune has nearly 60 hectares of land planted with peach trees and other ornamental plants.

Mr. Nguyen Huu Hau, Chairman of the Minh Tan Commune People's Committee, said: To facilitate farmers in expanding the area for peach cultivation, the Commune People's Committee assigned the Agricultural Service Cooperative to organize the clearing of waterways, ensuring irrigation and drainage, and coordinating with relevant units to provide quality fertilizers on deferred payment terms to orchard owners for caring for newly planted trees; and to organize training courses for farmers on techniques for soil preparation, planting, caring for, and pest and disease control for peach trees.

Political and social organizations vouch for loans from banks to help farmers invest in planting new peach trees. Emphasis is placed on effectively disseminating information and promoting Minh Tân's peach trees on social media and other channels to provide growers with new sales channels and increase farmers' income.

The newly planted peach trees in Minh Tan are being carefully tended, carrying the people's hopes for a year of favorable weather and a successful peach harvest.

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