HCMC – Although only growing vegetables and fruits for his family, Mr. Phan Van Liem, 46 years old, in the Tan Phu district, likes to grow strange varieties, super big varieties.

Mr. Liem is a self-employed man with three years of experience in rooftop gardening. “I have never been a gardener, so I joined many groups to ask for experience. Seeing many brothers and sisters sharing exotic or ‘super big’ varieties of vegetables and fruits that I have never seen before, because I am interested, so I planted them to try planting varieties. “, the garden boss said.

Last year, he began to experiment with super-large squash varieties in foam containers. With a single tree, he collects more than 20 fruits, the largest one weighing more than 34 kg. When harvested, he discovered this pumpkin variety was only fancy because the “giant” fruit was not delicious, suitable for making jam or cooking squash.

On his terrace, the man also planted gourd seed, each fruit can weigh up to 10 kg. To cook, he cut squash when he was young, about 3 kg each.

“The plants pollinate in the evening, when there are less insects, so I have to pollinate the plants so it is a little bit more extreme,” he said.

The kale trees planted by Liem also produce very large leaves. His secret is to focus on quality over quantity, planting only one plant per pot.

With leaf-eating types, men often take advantage of watering around 4 – 5 pm. Only water at the base, do not spray water on the leaves. In his experience, watering at night and soaking wet becomes the ideal environment for pests and diseases to grow.

Since gardening, Mr. Liem has learned about many kinds of strange plants. When he saw that his friends in the vegetable growing group showed off white bitter melon fruit, the fruit was also very large, so he asked for seeds to plant. Each bitter melon can be as big as a 1.5 liter soft drink bottle.

On March 8 this year, after harvesting, Mr. Liem brought him to the table to arrange colorful vegetables and fruits into a “giant flower” for his wife. At first, he said, seeing her husband doing gardening, his wife advised him to rest and “buy better at the market”.

“My wife did not expect the vegetables I planted to provide enough for the whole family. Not only that, each harvest was enough for relatives and friends,” he said.

The 46-year-old garden owner revealed the secret of planting: Before putting the soil in, he lined the bottom of the barrel with a layer of coal slag, punched holes on the side, about 5cm from the bottom.

“The coal slag is used to retain water and nutrients. If you do not water the plants one day, naturally, the roots will find themselves to the bottom to absorb water so you are not afraid of the tree wilting,” said Liem. share. .

He planted about 30 aloe vera trees and is also larger than normal size so he once harvested more than 50 kg. His family uses a little, the rest he gives to the temple.

For Mr. Liem, the stage of soil selection and soil mixing is most important. For the plant to develop well, the pot must always have soil and meat, then add rice husks, coco fiber, and eggshell to increase the porosity. In addition to fertilizing the plants with chicken manure and earthworm manure, he learned how to compost kitchen waste as manure.

Once cultivating a seed of melon fruit that is more than a meter long, Mr. Liem had to build a scaffold which was very area consuming. Then he thought of a more unique way to grow. When the melon started to stab the branch, Mr. Liem cut off the extra branches, leaving only the main one. How long the tree is, wrap a circle equal to the area of ​​the paint bucket. He called happily this is a tree “bonsai melon”.

In order to limit insect pathogens, in each corner of the garden he placed plastic bottles containing camphor seeds. The faint scent of camphor will repel stink bugs and yellow flies or chisels.

When planting new varieties, Mr. Liem is not afraid to share it with groups so that everyone has the motivation to cultivate. He left behind the seeds to donate to the seedling shops for free. Last year, during the flood in Central Vietnam, he also donated seeds of vegetables and melon to farmers.

From people who do not know how to do gardening, to learn cultivation, now cultivation has turned into his passion.

“There is a passion that is motivated to do it. Plant trees as well as raise babies. When they are young, they must take good care to develop their momentum later. When they grow up, they must take time to pay attention to timely detect pests and diseases. , timely treatment “, he shared. Follow vnexpress