While not eating rice, leaves fall off
A farmer in Thoi Lai district, Can Tho city shared - this year, the durian garden is bearing young fruit, entering the rice-free stage (the stage of forming the durian intestines), but the leaves on the trees tend to fall out a lot. If the situation of leaf loss continues, this farmer is worried that until the harvest at the end of April 2025, the productivity and growth of the trees will be affected.
Mr. Nguyen Minh Dung - Director of Tan Thuan Nhat Cooperative (Truong Thanh Commune, Thoi Lai District, Can Tho City) - said that currently, during the period when durian is blooming, with pests and bypasses, forming young and unripe fruits, the phenomenon of many fallen leaves occurs. Faced with this situation, the cooperative hopes to find a way to overcome it so as not to affect durian productivity.
Not only in the period of plowing and growing young fruit, in Tien Giang province, durian gardens also encountered leaf burning during harvest, affecting productivity.
With nearly 870 hectares of durian growing area, in Phu An commune (Cai Lay district, Tien Giang province), the situation of burning leaves on trees is common due to hot weather and bacteria-caused epidemics. This leads to a decrease in this year's harvest yield of about 40% compared to the same period in 2024.
Regarding the issue of leaf burning on durian trees, shared at the seminar "Some notes in producing fruit trees for export", Prof. Dr. Tran Van Hau - former senior lecturer at Can Tho University - said that this situation not only appeared in the provinces and cities of the Mekong Delta but also in the Southeast region.
The current leaf burns are different in many ways from before. Previously, leafyroids (also known as eczema), caused by the fungus Colletotrichum, developed during the rainy season, with high humidity conditions and could be treated with special medications to treat eczema.
Currently, leaf burns caused by the fungus Lasiodiplodia theobromae are associated with high temperature conditions, so they will develop in the dry season. Therefore, during the rainy season, pathogens are only spreading and really speaking out during the hot season, especially during the period of pests and premature fruit.
Double worries for gardeners
According to Prof. Dr. Tran Van Hau, if at the stage of pests and premature fruits, farmers do not apply timely management and prevention measures, when there is no rice for durian and the fruit to start to weigh heavily, it will be very difficult to treat, and can even cause trees to die.
"When there was leaf burns, when durian was not rice, the plants were severely affected in terms of nutrients. If you do not know how to manage it, the leaves will fall out of 70 - 80%. At that time, even if the fruit is cut and removed, the branches will dry out, unable to save both the fruit and the tree. We need to apply management and prevention measures right in the rainy season, when the plants start to have pests and the young fruit stage, said Prof. Dr. Tran Van Hau.
The appearance of the leaf-burning epidemic during the peak fruit production period has further pushed durian growers into a situation of increasing difficulties.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, the export value of the vegetable and fruit industry in the first 2 months of 2025 decreased by nearly half compared to the same period last year due to the impact of China tightening control of the remaining chemicals in imported fruits from all countries, including durian - Vietnam's main export product.
Sharing with Lao Dong, a gardener in Can Tho said that currently, the price of Ri 6 durian is purchased by traders at about 50,000 VND/kg (quality type), down nearly 70,000 VND/kg compared to the 2024 off-season. "Now the price of off-season is low, we are worried that it will soon be only 30,000 VND/kg, even 25,000 VND" - this farmer said.
