Others are afraid of Huanglong disease. He tends to grow orange with a hard waist.

Li Zugan and he Jianzhou are committed to growing oranges, upgrading their planting models and improving their sales strategies.

With the sporadic listing of sugar orange in some producing areas of Guangdong, the sales campaign of sugar orange has officially begun this year. Guangdong, as an important main producing area of sugar orange in China, its sugar orange industry has gone through a road from development and growth to shrinking and weakening, and then to the current resumption of development. However, it is undeniable that the current sugar orange industry in Guangdong is still seriously threatened by yellowing and Huanglong disease. The planting scale of the former "spiritual Territory" has dropped sharply from 240000 mu at its peak to less than 20, 000 mu.

However, many Guangdong orange growers still did not give up this career, they persevered in technological innovation, innovation in sales, to keep the orange tree evergreen.

In Yingde, the old area where sugar tangerine is grown, compared with the main producing areas such as Kowloon, Xiniu and Lixi, although the scale of sugar orange industry in Lihuipu town is not large, the Xiangsheng farm here is famous.

Xiangsheng Farm is located in a deep mountain less than 10 miles away from the town of Lime. It now covers an area of more than 200 mu and grows nearly 20,000 sugar oranges.

Due to blind cultivation and unreasonable development, Yingde sugar orange trees continue to yellowing, and many orange trees have been seriously affected by Huanglong disease. At a time when people have cut down trees and replanted them, a farm of this size is still standing, which is amazing to outsiders.

Today's Xiangsheng Farm is an example for many large families to follow. Although people see its strength today, in fact, it was almost bankrupt at that time.

There are many detours for beginners.

Hold on to the debt to sell land

In 2003, during the golden period of the development of Guangdong sugar orange industry, he Jianzhou and Li Zugan also found potential opportunities and found an uncultivated wasteland in Shipu town. the partnership invested hundreds of thousands of yuan to package more than 300 mu of farmland and began to plant sugar oranges.

"at that time, we basically knew nothing about planting techniques, and we only had a lot of drive, so although we worked very hard to develop the farm, in the end, we didn't make the right use of kung fu and took a lot of detours." He Jianzhou recalled that in the early spring of 2004, they found that the twigs of some newly planted seedlings were a little yellow. at first, they thought there was something wrong with the seedlings, but later, after careful consideration, they found that the chemical fertilizers were not fully dissolved and overused, and the seedlings were burned.

The "man-made disaster" has just gone, and there has been another natural disaster. After several years of exploration, the orchards of he Jianzhou and Li Zugan have begun to take shape, and many fruit trees are gradually hanging fruit. But in 2008, there was a large area of snow disaster in the south, heavy snow blocked the transport road, resulting in the fruit can not be transported out, basically rotten on the trees, many fruit farmers suffered heavy losses.

"We really lost a lot of money that year. At that time, there was so much pressure from our relatives and friends that we even thought about giving up. But then I think, when everyone gives up, if we are still holding on, then we must be a special one. " Li Zugan said.

After the snowstorm, the operation of the farm next year is even more difficult. After discussion, Li Zugan and he Jianzhou decided to sell 100 mu of orchards to ease the financial pressure.

"at most, we owe more than 8 million yuan, and we have to borrow and owe agricultural funds everywhere." He Jianzhou said. Under great pressure, the two began to become calm and focused, thinking about the next way out, and they decided to start with the most fundamental planting management.

Planting pattern upgrading

Fine application of organic fertilizer to old trees every spring

In recent years, the market situation of sugar orange continues to improve, which strengthens the determination of he Jianzhou and Li Zugan to continue to grow. At this time, however, they found that a small number of fruit trees in the orchard began to yellowing, which aroused their vigilance.

After asking for advice, groping and summing up many times, Li Zugan found that due to the simple application of chemical fertilizer in the past, the content of organic matter and trace elements in the soil was too low to meet the growth needs of sugar orange.

As the saying goes, the soil should be better and the base fertilizer should be better. "just as food is to humans, fertilizer is the food of trees. If we are hungry, we can eat meat at one or two meals, but we can't eat meat without rice and vegetables. For sugar orange trees, compound fertilizer is equivalent to pig, beef and mutton, and organic fertilizer is equivalent to vegetables and rice, which can supplement a variety of trace elements and organic matter. " Li Zugan makes such an analogy.

Since 2011, Xiangsheng Farm began to use hook machines to dig deep into the roots of fruit trees and consciously increase the amount of organic fertilizer, replenishing organic matter for fruit trees and soil by using retted peanut bran and dehumidified pig manure.

In addition, the fruit field began to use the way of water and fertilizer application in the daily management, which not only improved the nutrient utilization rate, but also realized the simultaneous application of water and fertilizer.

Under a series of improvements, tens of thousands of 13-year-old sugar orchards in the orchard are growing vigorously, and there is basically no sign of yellowing, which has become a rare large sugar orange field in Britain and Germany.

In response to this, Ye Tianquan, director of the Yingde Agricultural Technology Station, could not help sighing when he recalled: "back in those days, Yingdesa sugar and orange families were everywhere, but now they are basically yellowing everywhere, and those who grow dozens of acres are already large families with a scale of more than 100 mu."

Sales strategy

The early shipment and capital preservation will follow the market in the later period.

Since 2012, the operation of the farm has begun to improve dramatically. On the one hand, it is because the farm has upgraded the traditional planting model, on the other hand, it is actively promoted by the price market and adopted appropriate sales strategies.

He Jianzhou estimates that more than 10, 000 fruit trees in the orchard can supply about 2 million jin of fruit every year, and if calculated at a purchase price of 4 yuan per jin, the output value of the whole orchard will reach about 8 million yuan.

"however, 4 yuan per jin is the ideal price, and the market varies from year to year, so in the actual sales process, we should not be too strict with the price, otherwise the fruit will really rot on the tree." He Jianzhou said.

How to sell so many fruits is also a matter of knowledge. After years of groping and rolling, the farm has explored a set of mature sales model, that is, the early shipment to protect the capital, the later along with the market.

"specifically, we have regular cooperation with several acquisition bosses, who basically pack about 500000 jin of fruit every year. After this part of the fruit is sold, we can basically recover our investment that year." Li Zugan said that on this basis, there will be a boss to receive the goods, as long as there is a profit, even if a difference of 0.2 yuan / jin, will be sold.

In recent years, the market situation of sugar orange has become stable and gradually improving. Coupled with the increase in production and fruit brought by the upgraded planting model, the fruit market has been able to repay a large debt every year since 2012. "although it still owes hundreds of thousands, as long as the market remains stable this year, there will be no problem for us to achieve a comprehensive turnaround for more than a decade." He Jianzhou said.

"the frustrations of the past made us feel desperate, but we persevered, and now it seems that all persistence is worth it, and we will continue to plant it." Li Zugan sighed.