Soc TrangMr. Tran Anh Nhan, 46 years old, in Ke Sach district spends a lot of time tinkering with how to breed mutant star apple species, earning about three billion dong each year.
Mr. Nhan’s quaint star apple garden of more than 3.5 hectares in My Thuan hamlet, Nhon My commune, is full of fruit at the end of the year. In one corner of the garden, workers are bagging fruit to avoid insects, while others are busy harvesting to deliver it to customers on time.
His family has a tradition of growing specialty trees such as mango, longan, star apple, so from a young age Mr. Nhan had the opportunity to learn about tree care and grafting techniques. In 2010, he discovered that in the garden there was a 5-year-old purple star apple tree that produced fruit all year round, while the regular variety produced fruit in four months.
When ripe, the fruit weighs 250-500 grams, has shiny skin and a beautiful purple color. He tried the soft pulp, chewy meat, sweet taste, and few seeds, different from conventional varieties. The tree bears fruit all year round, so the garden owner named it four precious star apple.
Mr. Nhan harvested four precious star apples in the garden. Image: An Minh
Seeing a strange variety, he spent time tracking the “mother tree” and planted branches throughout the garden. He also researched grafting purple star apple trees onto four-quarter star apple trees. The original seedlings were carefully selected by him, disease-free and healthy, planted for about a year before being grafted.
After many failures, it was not until 2013 that Mr. Nhan perfected the breeding technique and successfully planted more than 100 star apple trees in his garden. “I grafted about 200 trees but was only about 60% successful. The trees are easy to care for, only fertilized once a month,” he said, saying this type of star apple bears fruit after 14-18 months. After 5 years, one hectare produces about 35 tons of fruit per year, 10 tons more than regular star apple.
More than 100 star apple trees were initially oriented by the garden owner to be the leading plants for further propagation. It took Mr. Nhan more than two years to carry out the testing steps and has just achieved a top-of-the-line garden certification with 80 trees.
Unlike conventional varieties, star apple only needs to be peeled off its thin skin to be used. Image: An Minh
The star apple tree has the outstanding characteristic of naturally blooming all year round and being tolerant of salinity. During recent historical droughts, many tree varieties in the garden could not withstand it, but the mutant star apple variety still overcame it and produced normal fruit. “Although the tree is easy to care for and has few diseases, farmers need to proactively source water for irrigation in the dry season to ensure output,” Mr. Nhan said.
In 2016, Mr. Nhan sold to the market about 3 tons of four-quarter star apple for 22,000 VND per kg. The strange Star apple fruit that first entered the market received compliments from customers. Many people were surprised when they first ate a different Star apple fruit. Many fruit stalls came to Mr. Nhan’s garden to order, but the output was not enough to sell.
Currently, Mr. Nhan has about 1,000 star apple trees with stable fruit production, and about 500 silk trees. From the first garden, every year he sells about 100,000 seedlings everywhere at a price of 80,000 VND each.
The selling price is quite high from 30,000 to 80,000 VND per kg, but with its outstanding characteristics and beautiful design, the strange star fruit is very popular in the market. In addition to selling domestically, Mr. Nhan is currently affiliated with a number of businesses exporting star apple to the US. Total sales volume domestically and internationally is about 80 tons per year.
Four-quarter star apple has thin skin, chewy and sweet meat. Image: An Minh
In 2020, Mr. Nhan established a cooperative with the goal of forming a specialized star apple farming area in the four quarters with a scale of more than 30 hectares, of which 11 hectares were granted planting area codes by the specialized industry. Four-quarter star apple products are also recognized as OCOP (one commune one product program of the Ministry of Industry and Trade) with 4 stars at the provincial level.
According to the Soc Trang Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection, the province has more than 2,300 hectares of star apple, concentrated mainly in Ke Sach district, including varieties such as purple star apple, blacksmith, and pink avocado. Among them, the four-quarter purple star apple variety is highly appreciated by the industry and the market because of its outstanding advantages of giving fruit all year round and beautiful design.
An Minh