“Infiltrating” the kumquat capital, watching people choose trees more than a month before Tet. Clip: Trung Hieu.
Select Ornamental kumquat from the beginning of the 11th lunar month because “I’m afraid of running out of beautiful trees”
According to a reporter’s survey Vietnamese people, in Tu Lien ward (Tay Ho, Hanoi) there are currently about 400 kumquat growing households with an area of 15 hectares. Garden owners here share that they expect the peak consumption period for Tu Lien ornamental kumquats to be in the middle of the 12th lunar month. However, from this point on, some people came to the garden to see and choose to buy kumquats to celebrate Tet.
Present at a kumquat garden in Tu Lien ward, Ms. Tran Thi Khanh (64 years old, Tay Ho, Hanoi) has just chosen a bonsai kumquat tree that she likes. She shared: “Every year I go to the gardens to pick kumquats from around the beginning of the 11th lunar month. The kumquat tree I chose today costs over 1 million VND. I paid and asked the gardener to take care of it until Tet. Just arrived and shipped back”.
Lunar New Year is more than a month away, but already people are choosing ornamental kumquats to display. Photo: Trung Hieu.
Ms. Khanh continued: “My criteria for choosing bonsai kumquats to celebrate Tet are that the fruit must be big, the leaves must be green, the branches must be hard and especially the tree must have a lot of fortune, with the hope that in the new year the family will have lots of fortune and prosperity. The reason I have to go so early is because I want to choose a beautiful kumquat tree. If I leave it later, I’m afraid someone else will buy it.”
Talk to reporters Vietnamese peopleMr. Le Anh Dung (63 years old), who has been involved in growing ornamental kumquats in Tu Lien ward for 40 years, said that this year, his garden planted 300 kumquat trees. “All the kumquats I grow in the garden are bonsai kumquats. In the past, I grew kumquat trees in the ground, but when Tet comes, I have to cut down the roots and dig up the kumquat trees. If it rains near Tet every year, the soil will loosen, causing Kumquats are not beautiful. So for many years now, I have been growing kumquat trees in vases.”
While leading reporters to tour his family’s kumquat garden, Mr. Dung said passionately: “Every day I am present at the garden from morning to afternoon to take care of the trees. Currently, kumquats have fortunes waiting for them, and when Tet comes, they will appear.” flowers. The average price is about 500,000-700,000 VND/tree, while large, beautiful roots have a different price. Multi-generation kumquat trees, including ripe, young, and green fruits, represent a family, Some old and some young people are often bought by connoisseurs to display during Tet, with some trees costing up to tens of millions of dong.”
Many gardeners grow bonsai kumquat instead of growing kumquat in the ground. Photo: Trung Hieu.
Mr. Dung said that kumquat growing is very elaborate, not just having experience can create beautiful kumquat trees. “I may have experience, but this job depends a lot on the weather. This year it’s cold late, and from now until Tet will be warm or cold, I have no way of knowing. If the weather is warm, no It’s still easy to make flowers when it’s too cold, but if it’s too cold, the fruit won’t grow, the buds won’t grow, and making flowers is very difficult.”
At another garden in Tay Ho district, Mr. Nguyen Van Hung (60 years old) is meticulously cutting steel wires tied to ornamental kumquat trees. Seeing the reporter’s question, Mr. Hung immediately answered: “Many times the kumquat buds do not grow properly, we have to do this to shape the kumquat tree properly. For example, a branch that leans out too much will easily be destroyed. canopy, it became a kumquat tree again. When the steel wire was first tied, it looked open, but over time, it began to lose color, no one noticed that the steel wire was tied there, it became a tree. The kumquat looks very natural.”
“Multi-generation” kumquat trees cost up to tens of millions of dong. Photo: Trung Hieu.
While pointing at the kumquat trees laden with fruit, Mr. Hung shared: “These kumquat trees look like that now, but I still have to take great care of them. The more fruit they bear, the more water they absorb.” At this time, I have to be very careful in giving water to the plant. If the plant is too weak, if too much water is added, the roots will be damaged. A healthy plant can be watered, but only at a sufficient level to feed the plant. , grow fruit, but if all trees were the same, it would be simple.”
Garden owner Nhat Tan peach Busy composting rice husks, mixing soil, waiting for “digging”
Going to Nhat Tan peach village (Tay Ho, Hanoi) these days, it is not difficult to see gardeners carrying large and small bags of rice husks to mix into the soil. Asking Mr. Nguyen Van Hai (32 years old), owner of a peach orchard in this area, he said this is a step carried out before planting trees in pots to sell to people for Tet.
“Before composting rice husks, I pluck peach leaves. About 30-40 days before Tet, I start plucking rice husks. After that, I start composting rice husks and mixing them with soil to reduce the level of pests and diseases of the tree. “Finally, we come to the stage of digging and putting the trees in pots to plant for the next sale,” Mr. Hai said.
At a peach garden in Nhat Tan ward, gardeners are busy composting rice husks and mixing soil waiting for “digging”. Photo: Trung Hieu.
Mr. Hai’s garden has about 300 peach trees, from small to large. He shared: “The price of peaches depends on the size of their roots. The lowest price must be around 2-3 million VND for mini peaches, and for large peach trees, there are trees up to several tens of millions of VND. Compared to other years, this year’s price will certainly be slightly higher, because the cost of labor, fertilizer… have increased and the effort to take care of a peach tree is also more difficult now.”
Receiving a question about the cost of hiring workers this year, Ms. Nguyen Thi Lien said as she quickly held a shovel with both hands, mixing large and small bags of rice husks into the soil: “From this point on, every gardener calls me Usually, on afternoons like this, I work 4 hours, from 13:00 to 17:00. Labor prices are calculated per person, each person ranges from 300,000 VND to 500,000 VND per person, depending on the job. garden”.
Garden owners predict the strongest purchasing power for peaches in the middle of the 12th lunar month. Photo: Trung Hieu.
The peach trees in Mr. Hai’s garden are mostly of the Nhat Tan peach variety. In addition, he also plants some wild peach trees to serve the needs of customers. “Most customers, after playing Tet peach tree, will send it back to me to take care of again. But the risk is relatively high, some trees I will be able to recover, some trees I will have to throw away.”
Mr. Hai predicts that customers’ purchasing power will begin to increase from the beginning of the 12th lunar month and be strongest in the middle of the month. “Following the trend from previous years, I think that this year when people go shopping for peaches, they will buy them instead of renting them, except for some agencies that may rent them during the Tet season, about 1 month or so,” Mr. Hai said. .
