VietNamNet Bridge – A farmer in Hanoi’s outskirts district of Thanh Oai has become well-known in Vietnam for successfully planting trees that yield five to seven kinds of fruits, typically used on offering trays on traditional festivals.

Le Duc Giap is a farmer in Cao Vien Commune, Thanh Oai District, Hanoi City. -- Photo: VNP

That farmer is Le Duc Giap in Cao Vien Commune. He is now in his 60s and is an experienced horticulturist.

Normally, an ornamental orange tree bears its first fruit four years after being planted. However, in Giap’s garden, the time is shortened to one year only.

Giap started to develop his idea of creating trees with five types of fruits, namely orange, grapefruit, mandarin, kumquat and Buddha’s hand in 2010.

He said he realized that people who are interested in the ornamental orange trees in my garden also want to have more beautiful and artistic trees to display in their house during traditional festivals, especially Tet. That’s why he decided to create trees with various types of fruits.

The types of fruit symbolise the five-fruit tray the Vietnamese people display on their ancestral altars on special occasions, especially Tet, the country’s biggest annual festival.

At first, Giap failed because one or two types of fruits ripened before the Tet holiday. From the failure, he found the most difficult thing was to make all the fruits ripen at the same time because in nature, each kind of fruit has a different harvest time.

“I drew a lesson that each type of fruit has to be grafted on the tree at a different time to make them all ripen at Tet. Normally, I begin grafting grape fruit and orange in May, mandarin and kumquat in August or September and finally Buddha’s hand in October or November,” he related.

His trees are unique and colorful with yellow fruits, green leaves and fragrant white flowers. They are believed to bring good luck, prosperity to the owner in the New Year.

Late November and early December are the busiest times for Giap. A large number of customers visit his 1,000 sq.m garden.

A multi-fruit bearing tree can be displayed for a month-long period. After the Tet holiday, the buyers can still take care of it and display it in the next year.

Giap has successfully created many different fruits on a tree. This can be considered a unique example to inspire creativity in Vietnamese farmers.

Source: Vietnam Plus