Sustainable cultivation of fruit trees in the Mekong Delta

For the sustainable cultivation of fruit trees, ecological zoning is required, in which ecological conditions must be carefully assessed.
The process of taking care of fruit trees

When having a good soil environment for plants, plant care is also very important, mainly fertilizing and pruning. Fertilization, it is necessary to follow the rhythm of the tree’s life. For example, a newly planted tree, its life cycle is the bursts of buds (buds). As for fruit trees, the tree’s life rhythm is: harvesting, creating buds, flowering and raising fruit. The following is the plant care process Dr. Tran Kim Tinh, lecturer at the Faculty of Agriculture and Applied Biology – Can Tho University, introduces it to readers for reference. Plant ground cover grass. Photo: Minh Dam. First, plant ground cover grass. Keep the water in the ditch 50-60 cm above the ground. Sprinkler irrigation (small rays) or permeable irrigation. Post-harvest pruning of fruit trees. The tree is still small, after each bud, needs to be pruned, created a canopy and only produces 3-4 buds in a year. In terms of fertilizer use, organic fertilizers must be applied annually and only when needed to produce sprouts for seedlings. For fruit trees, fertilize when creating buds to use high nitrogen. When the tree is in the stage of growing young fruit, it reduces nitrogen and increases potassium. As fruit trees grow, farmers should further reduce nitrogen and increase potassium. Farmers should fertilize plants with organic fertilizer every year. (In the photo: Compost production at Clean Farm Company). Photo: Minh Dam. Common mistakes in farming Currently, on land crops, there are too many errors in soil preparation for planting and crop care. The prerequisite is to have the right soil physical environment for plant roots to develop. A lot of gardens, the preparation and management of the land is not right. Errors such as soil compaction are very common in all provinces. This leads to vegetable plants not growing evenly, corn not developing roots, orange orchards yellowing leaves, sleeping during the day. The structure of the soil (clump of soil) is not suitable, the lump of soil is too big for the roots to develop. Soil is compacted, reducing permeability. Keep water too high in the orchard. Use soil that is too acidic to grow fruit trees. Converting rice land to grow fruit trees, but there is no way to prepare the land properly. Improper watering. Planting trees buried roots too deep. Too much nitrogen fertilizer and foliar spray have too many growth stimulants, making the canopy unbalanced with the roots, the tree sleeps during the day. The soil structure must be suitable for the plant. Photo: Minh Dam. In farming there are mistakes, which can be easily remedied. For example, over-fertilizing nitrogen, spraying foliar fertilizers, but there are many errors in cultivation, which are difficult to overcome or even impossible to overcome, but must be cut down to replant. For example, in rice farming, farmers are advised to withdraw water mid-season, or to withdraw water several times in a crop. If farmers withdraw water by draining water from the field, this is a very dangerous practice. Because of doing so, the rice soil becomes acidic very quickly. Instead of recommending water withdrawal, it must be recommended to squeeze the water. That means adjusting the amount of watering so that by that point the field becomes dry. For upland crops, soil compaction is very dangerous, because when the soil is compacted, it is very difficult to overcome. The pH must be right One thing to be concerned about, the soil pH in the Mekong Delta is now seriously declining and depleted of potassium. Plants cannot absorb nutrients effectively when the pH is not raised to 6-6.5. Due to the serious decrease in organic matter in rice soil, when flooded, it is not possible to raise the pH. There are still many shortcomings in rice cultivation, when it comes to soil, that need to be studied. Soils in the Mekong Delta are seriously lacking in potassium and need to be supplemented with potassium, especially in the fruiting stage. Photo: Minh Dam. It is not enough, soil pH must be suitable and nutrients for plants must be sufficient in quantity and type. It has been shown in science that the mineral nutrients for plants must be sufficient in type (14 types) and in quantity, if one of the 14 types is lacking, the crop yield will decrease, even though 13 types The rest are high. In order for plants to absorb nutrients well, the pH of the soil must be suitable, preferably 6-6.5. Below pH 6, absorption of some nutrients is difficult and when the pH drops to 4-5, nutrient absorption is severely reduced. No plants grow normally under low pH and high pH conditions. For example, the pineapple tree can grow on acidic soil, but it is not normal. For sustainable farming, the following criteria should be considered and trained for farmers: Technical level of farmers, organic content in soil, soil pH in profile, soil texture, soil structure in analysis. area, irrigation capacity, drainage, fertilizer application process. Currently, there are still many issues that need to be studied to determine the soil properties that need to be addressed. The ecological characteristics need to be analyzed thoroughly, for ecological zoning. Minh Dam – Ngoc Thang ( write the)