Farmers and entrepreneurs in Guizhou have successfully planted apples in rocky desertification areas.

There have been several hailstorms this year, and Wu Longhua often has to check the damage after the apple blossoms in the apple orchard.

On August 28, 2014, Wu Longhua secretly hung a successful harvest of five apples, which gave him the confidence to persist in growing apples in western Guizhou.

The large apple planting bases in China are all in the north, and only apples grown in a few places such as Zhaotong, Yunnan, in the southwest can be sold to neighboring provinces and cities. However, Wu Longhua, a stubborn peasant entrepreneur in Qianxi County, Guizhou Province, has been trying to grow apples in rocky desertified land in karst areas since 2013. After more than three years of experiments, Wu Longhua's apples have been successfully planted and registered the trademark "Shuixi Highland Red", and the "Shuixi Brand" red Fuji apples produced in western Guizhou are expected to be mass-produced and put into the market this year.

The contractor wanted to grow apples and the villagers were not optimistic at first.

Wu Longhua, 36, is from Xinhai Village, Dingxin Township, Qianxi County. His family has seven brothers and sisters. He ranks sixth because his family is poor, so it is very difficult to study. "there are no crops in the field, so my parents make a living by carrying coal on their backs." Wu Longhua said that at that time, a horse raised in the family was the source of income for the whole family, and the daily income of five or six yuan was not enough to support nearly 10 members of the family.

In 1995, Wu Longhua was about to enter the second year of junior high school, but the family could no longer afford the money for their brother and sister to study. Wu Longhua took the initiative to tell his parents that he would leave the money to other siblings and drop out of school to work. Finally, he carried more than 30 jin of soybeans from his family to Qianxi County, where he sold more than 20 yuan as a road fare and began his career.

When he was only 15 years old at that time, he first went to Anshun Pingba Fertilizer Plant to take refuge with relatives, and then went to Guiyang and Zunyi, where he successively worked as a backyard, cement worker, steel bar worker, and so on. "it can be said that I have done all kinds of work related to construction, and in 2003, I came out to contract the project myself." But after 10 years of hard work, Wu Longhua has become a well-known local entrepreneur.

At its peak, Wu Longhua had more than 100 workers and successively built some schools and large-scale projects around western Guizhou. His personal assets reached more than 30 million yuan. He was not only a well-known construction contractor, but also one of the few tycoons in western Guizhou.

"in 2012, when I went back to the village to worship my ancestors, I couldn't get in when I drove to the entrance of the village. at that time, I was cruel and wanted to change my hometown." Although Wu Longhua has already moved to Qianxi County, the idea that he wants to start a project to get rich in his hometown has excited people in Xinhai Village. Wu Longhua asked the villagers for advice, and everyone unanimously proposed farming.

However, after inspecting the market everywhere, Wu Longhua gave up the idea of farming. "I told them to plant apples that didn't exist in western Guizhou before." Wu Longhua believes that whether it is engaged in breeding or other projects, it will cause pollution, and only by engaging in the planting industry can we get rich while preserving the green mountains and rivers of our hometown. At that time, 90% of the villagers were not optimistic about Wu Longhua's project.

Trial planting brings surprise: it is even sweeter and crisper than Shandong's.

In January 2013, Wu Longhua introduced seedlings from Qixia City, Yantai, Shandong Province. in order to know whether Qianxi can grow apples as soon as possible, Wu Longhua bought adult apples with a trunk diameter of more than 5 centimeters and saplings of about 2.5 meters for trial planting. "this kind of sapling costs 350 yuan each, and the same kind of tree costs only 10 yuan if it is a seedling." Wu Longhua said that he bought 380 plants in one breath and planted a total of 10 mu of apple orchards for experiment. after planting, the cost of each plant was 480 yuan, and this trial plant cost more than 200,000 yuan.

According to the guidance and advice of Shandong experts, Wu Longhua, an apple tree that has just been transplanted, has seriously damaged its roots during transplanting. Although it can blossom and bear fruit, it cannot hang fruit because its roots are unstable in the first two years of transplanting. Otherwise, it will be very disadvantageous to the growth of apple trees in the future. "I secretly left a few small fruits in the corner of the apple field, just to see if I could produce a big round and red apple."

After more than a year of careful care, Wu Longhua found that apples in Shandong not only blossom and blossom on time in western Guizhou, but also the growth cycle is not very different from Yantai, and the light Wu Longhua is most worried about can fully meet the growth requirements of apples. "finally, in the second year of my planting, I secretly left five apples on the saplings." Wu Longhua still remembers the date of August 28, 2014, when he picked the apples he had tried and found that the apples grown in western Guizhou were sweeter and crisper than those in Shandong, and matured more than 20 days earlier.

Although only five apples were retained in the planting experiment in the second year, this gave Wu Longhua a lot of confidence and determination. "now that I can plant them, I'll find a way to make them bigger and better." Wu Longhua said that because he had no confidence at that time, he invested more than 200,000 yuan in experiments, all of which was hidden from his wife. Now that the planting has been successful, he has begun to plan a professional and boutique route.

Qianxi Red Fuji has applied for trademark: Shuixi Gaoyuan Red

In October 2013, Wu Longhua sent soil samples from Haicun to Shandong for testing and began to set up a company to register trademarks to turn apples from western Guizhou into high-quality fruit.

Although the educational level is not high, Wu Longhua appears to be very professional in doing things. according to the test report provided by Zhaoyuan Agricultural quality Supervision and testing Center on January 7, 2014, the three soils submitted by Wu Longhua are all suitable for growing apples. and according to the different soil quality, Wu Longhua gave suggestions for planting Yanfu No. 3, No. 6 and No. 0, and provided professional suggestions for fertilization and pollination according to the soil quality.

At the same time, on January 14, 2014, Wu Longhua registered and established Guizhou Shuixi Wu Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., whose main product is to grow apples. Wu Longhua invested 50.5 million yuan to build a farmer planting sightseeing park covering an area of 1525 mu, according to a filing issued by the Qianxi County Development and Reform Bureau in June 2014. "growing apples can not only produce economic benefits, but also develop tourism." Wu Longhua said that his village is less than an hour's drive from the famous hundred-mile rhododendron scenic spot, so he also wants to turn the apple orchard into a comprehensive park that integrates agriculture and tourism.

"the township is also very supportive of my planting. I had a bumper harvest in the first year of growing apples in 2015, and the leaders of the township all came to taste it." Wu Longhua's apple orchard finally ushered in a small bumper harvest in August and September 2015, because experts suggested that a large number of fruits could not be hung up a few years ago, so the 10-mu apple orchard finally harvested only two or three thousand jin. "none of them are sold to the outside world. Everyone will taste it and pick it all, but the more we go forward, the greater our output will be!"

In June 2015, Wu Longhua formally applied for his own apple trademark, named "Shuixi Plateau Red". Shuixi is the old name of Dafang and Qianxi, which means the apple of Shuixi ancient real estate. Bijie Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce identified Wu Longhua's apple planting base as a small and micro enterprise that "abided by contracts and honored credits" in 2014.

On April 21 this year, Wu Longhua successfully listed the new marine aquaculture professional cooperative in Dingxin Township, Qianxi County.

In three years, he expanded to 1000 mu. He wants to be the "apple king."