The strange litchi variety with “terrible” fruit was named by Mr. Pham Van Giang (Thuy Lam village, Thanh Son commune, Thanh Ha district, Hai Duong province) as “First Thanh Ha litchi”. The selling price of the fabric is 100,000 VND/kg but not enough supplies.($1=24,000 VND)
“First cloth… big”
We arrived at Mr. Pham Van Giang’s house right when he and his wife returned from harvesting lychees. His face and clothes were soaked with sweat. Mr. Giang opened the cloth and took out a few fruits for me to enjoy.
Looking at the lychee Mr. Giang gave me, I found it to be bigger than the early varieties of lychee, equivalent to a duck egg. Peel the fruit, inside is the pulp, which is also thicker than other varieties of lychee. It has a sweet taste, and the seeds are smaller than that of early lychee.
Mr. Giang named this litchi variety “The First Thanh Ha lychee” because it gives the largest fruit among the litchi varieties grown in this land. “This is a new litchi variety that has been researched and recognized as a national variety. Currently, my family is the first and only household in Hai Duong province to grow this litchi variety,” said Mr. Giang.
In 2020, the Hai Duong Department of Agriculture and Rural Development gave Mr. Giang’s family a few new varieties of lychee for trial planting. As an agriculturist, interested in researching new plant varieties with high economic value, Mr. Giang is excited to test this new variety of litchi. He selected mature lychee trees, sawed and cut branches and then grafted new varieties of lychee.
Thanks to the care according to VietGAP and GlobalGAP procedures, the new lychee seeds are grafted on the well-developed eggplant stem. After only 1 year, the grafts have become lychee branches and begin to read fruit.
According to information from the Center for Research and Development of Fruits and Vegetables (Northern Mountainous Agro-Forestry Science and Technology Institute), the PH40 lychee variety was recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as a new national plant variety in 2019 and has also been added to the list. Adding to the structure of early ripening litchi varieties helps spread the harvest to increase consumption and increase economic efficiency.
PH40 lychee variety, flowering time is concentrated from 10-12/1 every year, harvest time 20-24/5 (earlier than the main lychee variety about 20-30 days). PH40 lychee variety has a yield of 17-18 kg/tree (5 years old), heart-shaped, velvety red, fruit weight 50-55 g/fruit. The yield of PH40 lychee reaches more than 18 tons/ha.
Mr. Giang found that this variety of litchi produced much larger fruit than other varieties he had seen, bright red when ripe. Enjoying the “sweet fruit of the first season”, Mr. Giang noticed that the lychee flesh is thick, sweet, not sour, and the seeds are smaller than the litchi varieties.
Realizing that the quality of this new variety of litchi has many advantages, Mr. Giang continued to graft new varieties of lychee to expand the area. In the second year (ie 2022), the litchi garden “De first Thanh Ha lychee” has more fruit trees.
In addition to making gifts and gifts, Mr. Giang also sells to “detect” the market. Who would have thought that the “First Thanh Ha lychee” fruit has a very high selling price, more than 3 times higher than that of early u lychee varieties, with the price of 100,000 VND/kg.
Mr. Giang excitedly continued grafting other lychees. Currently, he has 2 poles of lychee like “De Nhat Thanh Ha”. This 2023 litchi season, Mr. Giang harvested 1 quintal of lychee and sold it to a customer, a company with a chain of high-end clean fruit stores in Hanoi, for 100,000 VND/kg.
Mr. Giang said: “Selling to the company is very demanding, I have to do a test for the lychee fruit to prove that there is no residual pesticide residue. This variety is heavier than the same variety. other lychee, so it only takes 16 fruits to reach 1kg in weight”.
According to estimates, with 2 sao of “De Nhat Thanh Ha lychee” (there are still many grafted litchi trees that have not yet produced fruit), this year’s litchi crop, Mr. Giang is expected to get 5 quintals of litchi. Although the specific yield has not been calculated, according to Mr. Giang’s estimate, these varieties have the same or higher yield as the early varieties of lychee.
“Despite the high selling price, my garden currently does not have enough goods to deliver to customers,” said Mr. Giang. Calculating, with 2 poles of lychee yielding 5 quintals of fruit, Mr. Giang earned VND 50 million, initially showing the potential of a new lychee variety with high economic value.
Mr. Giang added that the family has 2 acres of land to grow litchi and apples. To pass this lychee crop, he will study to expand the area by grafting on the trunks of other lychee trees to diversify fabrics to serve the needs of customers and increase the value of income for the family.
Research on replication of precious litchi varieties
In order to find out the origin of the “First Thanh Ha litchi” variety, we discussed with Mr. Tran Van Quan – Vice Chairman of Hai Duong People’s Committee and Ms. Luong Thi Kiem – Deputy Director of Hai Duong Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Both Mr. Quan and Ms. Kiem confirmed that this lychee variety was brought back to Mr. Giang by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development for Mr. Giang to plant and test.
Ms. Kiem said: “The litchi variety named PH40 was researched and multiplied by the Research and Development Center of Fruits and Vegetables of the Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology in the Northern Mountains (in Phu Tho). to Bac Giang and some places to plant, we also propose to experiment in Hai Duong.”
After that, this litchi variety was brought to Mr. Giang’s house to be grafted onto the trunk of the lychee tree. Thanh Ha is the soil of litchi, so it is very suitable for this variety to grow and develop, the fruit is large and very delicious.
According to Ms. Kiem, this litchi variety has the advantages of early ripening, sweet taste, no sour taste, small seeds and good yield. On the downside, this lychee does not have a characteristic aroma like Thanh Ha lychee, the fruit is large but the gloss, the degree is uneven, the tail is a bit sunken, the design when ripe is not very fresh.
According to Ms. Kiem, the yield of PH40 lychee is similar and not much higher than that of other early ripening varieties because this variety is large but has few fruits. However, this depends on the level of farming techniques and care of the farmers.
Regarding the development of mass replication of the PH40 litchi variety, Ms. Kiem shared: “We are monitoring the adaptability of this variety. If it is suitable, it will be widely replicated to replace a certain percentage of ripe litchi varieties. early, because Hai Duong’s early-ripening litchi output is still small compared to market demand”.
Photo: Internet (Vinlove.net)