Tolerates salinity up to 3‰
The reporter visited the 6-hectare garden of farmer Tran Anh Nhan in Nhon My commune (Ke Sach district, Soc Trang province) growing four-season purple star apples right when the trees were bearing heavy fruit. This type of tree is very similar to the common purple star apple but the fruit is large, beautiful in color and right when bearing fruit, the tree still blooms all over the branches.
Mr. Nhan said that the purple star apple has the advantage of producing large fruits (250 - 500 gr/fruit). The flesh is tough, fragrant, sweet, latex-free, and the skin is thin so you can peel it to eat directly instead of using a knife to peel it. In particular, the tree always flowers and bears fruit without depending on seasonal factors.
Sharing the opportunity to own this tree with many advantages, Mr. Nhan said that in 2010, he discovered in his family's purple star apple garden a 5-year-old star apple tree that bears fruit all year round while the normal variety only bears fruit once a year.
“Seeing the strange tree, I spent time monitoring the "mother tree" to propagate it. Initially, I grafted about 200 trees but was only successful at about 60%. It was not until 2013 that I perfected the propagation technique and successfully planted more than 100 four-season star apple trees. Because of the advantage of bearing fruit all year round, I named it four-season purple star apple,” said Mr. Nhan.
According to Mr. Nhan, this type of tree is easy to care for, fertilizing only once a month. The tree will bear fruit after 14 - 18 months of planting. In particular, the tree can withstand salinity up to 3‰. "In 2016, the commune was affected by saltwater intrusion, the salinity measured at 3‰, while many other crops died, the four-season star apple garden only shed its leaves, then continued to bear fruit normally," said Mr. Nhan.
Mr. Nhan said that up to now, the four-season star apple variety has been registered for exclusive protection with the Department of Crop Production (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) and has been recognized as a parent garden by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Soc Trang province. The four-season star apple fruit has also been certified as a 4-star OCOP of the province.
Currently, the family has expanded the area to 6 hectares with about 1,000 trees bearing stable fruit, 500 trees preparing to bear fruit. From the original garden, each year he supplies about 100,000 seedlings at a price of 80,000 VND/tree.
For the fruit, the selling price is quite high, from 30,000 - 80,000 VND/kg. In addition to selling domestically, he also cooperates with a number of businesses to export to the US. The total output sold domestically and internationally is about 80 tons per year.
Open up opportunities for gardeners to get rich
Mr. Nhan said that in 2020, the local government established the My Phuoc High-Tech Agriculture and Community Tourism Cooperative with 21 members. He was elected Director of the Cooperative with the goal of forming a specialized area for growing purple star apples.
Accordingly, members of the cooperative will be provided with seedlings, fertilizers, biological pesticides, fruit bags and output sales when the harvest season comes. Households in difficult circumstances will be supported with seedlings in the form of payment divided into installments or after a period of planting, they will have to pay for the seedlings.
According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ke Sach district, up to now, the locality has formed a purple star apple material area of over 41.3 hectares. Of which, about 11.3 hectares have been granted a growing area code by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Soc Trang province.
Currently, Mr. Nhan is also collaborating with some other localities to expand the growing area to 30 hectares. At the same time, the cooperative also creates regular jobs for more than 20 workers with an income of 12 million VND/month.
Thanks to his efforts in production and business, Mr. Nhan was recognized by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Farmers' Union as an Outstanding Vietnamese Farmer in 2024.
