It's early and it's a big homemade blueberries
The southern high series blueberries are two to three times the diameter of the traditional blueberries and can even be equal to the size of the watchboard. Interviewee for map
It's the blueberry season. In the blueberry plantation, a full blueberry is hanging on a branch in the southern water town of fushan, guangdong, where workers are busy picking fruit. Here the blueberries are big, the fruit is 2-3 times the conventional blueberries, the medium fruit is 18-25 mm and the mega fruit average is over 26 mm. Apart from its size, blueberries are on the market earlier than conventional blueberries, which are available in large quantities from april to september of each year, and blueberries in the blueberry plantation, a resource facility, are on the market as early as january。
Why are the blueberries here so ripe and big? The plantation is based on the results of the chen ishiya team research, which is taught by the faculty of horticulture of the south china university of agriculture, and modern planting techniques such as steel-mounted sheds, foundational mono-baskets, fully automated integrated water fertilizer drip irrigation systems, with precision control of the nutrition required for each seedling at all stages of its growth。
Today, such large blueberries have become the fragrance of the market and the supply has fallen short of demand. The blueberry technology has now been extended and 15 industrial project production bases have been established, with a cumulative area of more than 2,500 acres, with good economic and social benefits, and the area of extension is rising。
Industrial blueberries are not easy
Blueberries are small, but they are powerful, and they are called the “first fruit for the eyesight”, “the king of fruit and vegetables against the oxidation”, “the queen of fruit”, etc., and they are classified by the food and agriculture organization of the united nations as one of the “five health fruits” of humankind, the only fruit of the “ten best nutritional values of humanity” identified by the world health organization。
Blueberries originated in north america and have been developed globally in more than 58 countries owing to huge market potential and economic benefits and rapid industrial development. Overall, the area under blueberry cultivation and production in the country are growing year by year. According to statistics, the area under blueberry cultivation in the country has increased fivefold over the past 10 years, yield has increased 84 times, and domestic market demand has been high and there has been a supply and demand gap。
However, blueberries also have their own “personality”, which is not easy to industrialize. The blueberries, which are traditionally planted in the open, are subject to soil structure and climate, planting techniques, etc., with small fruit trails, sour tastes, soft tastes, diluted fruit and low yields. Southern china, where soil is adhesive, organically low, and air-traffic, combined with high regional rainfall, has been considered inappropriate for industrial blueberries。
Chen yang yao, a long-standing horticulture researcher of facilities, saw the problem and the market。
In his view, the high level of competition for homogenization in the form of large amounts of blueberries planted in traditional lands from april to september each year, and the fact that it took decades of ocean transport to import blueberries into the market in june to december each year, resulted in poor taste and high transport costs when fruit was not fully mature. There must be a market if the blueberries can be of good quality during the "empty window" period。
He also observed that some places in guangdong had previously planted large areas of blueberries, but that they were largely ineffective and did not yield benefits to growers due to variety, climate and technology. He therefore hoped that through technological breakthroughs, improved varieties and innovative technologies, high-quality blueberries would be produced to benefit growers and agricultural enterprises。
Starting in 2016, chen zhiang decided to chew on this hard bone and put a team in the laboratory and base. From the screening of varieties, the breeding of trees, innovation in planting methods, control of quality, and conservation after harvesting, he decided to break through key core technologies throughout the chain。
All-industry chain research on new blueberry varieties
“it can be said that it starts from scratch.” chen long said。
While the objectives are clear, there are many technical difficulties, starting with the issue of varieties。
Blueberries belong to the north, and to foreign species. The low latitude of guangdong is different in light heat from the traditional areas where blueberries grow, and in soil conditions. In guangdong, blueberries are grown in the traditional form of land, with few flowers, low yields and poor taste。
“these technologies appear to be very advanced, but in the end they are a matter of planting. People can do it, and we can do it! The team conducted adaptation tests and screenings around “early, rich, large, sweet, thin”. Chen il middle led the team to conduct experiments at four bases to continuously screen high-quality varieties suitable for cultivation at the south china facility through mutations, hybrids, etc。
The maximum amount of time spent is spent on duplication of research, breeding, cutting, trophication... Day after day, year after year. There are no ready-made planting matrix and nutrient formulations, no ready-made cut time and mode, and all steps can only be slowly explored。
"blueberries are too precious to have problems with any planting chain." chen yuzhi was impressed。
Thus, using the warmth that is unique to south china, chen ishiya's team has been able to innovate the production methods of large-scale base-based farming, and, over a period of eight years, has taken advantage of key technologies, such as adaptation screening of varieties, tree culture trimulation, flower promotion, quality control, integrated pest management, which have resulted in the selection of the southern high series of grand blueberries, suitable for the southern climate, with a steady production period, high yield and good quality, which has significantly exceeded the limits of traditional blueberries。
This breed has its own advantages compared to the traditional blueberries. The first is good quality, big fruit, two or three times the size of traditional blueberries, and sweetness, with a good taste of freshness. Second, early on in the market, blueberries are usually marketed at home in april-september, and imported blueberries in june-december, with blueberries of this variety first listed in january-april. Thirdly, the production is higher, and the traditional blueberries tend to produce fruit in three years, with a maximum acre production of 700 to 1,200 kg, while the plant breeds produce more than 3,000 to 4,000 kg per year。
"last year i saw a blueberry with a 42-millimeter radius, almost as big as my watchboard!" chen was proud to say。
Start integrated operation of production studies
It is clear to chen that innovation in varieties selection and technology is only the first step towards the success of big blueberries, and that in the development of modern agricultural industries integrated business models are key。
“our research is definitely not about writing papers, we write them on the land of our homeland.” chen yui said that the south china university of agriculture had always attached great importance to the transformation of results, and that the team had been paying special attention to industrialization from the outset, working with companies in a variety of ways. The product and technology had been patented for more than 10 patents, shared by both the team and the company, and the industrialization of research results would be smoother。
Cultivation, harvesting, classification, processing, storage, transport, marketing ... The team decided to create a new industry paradigm for the management of blueberry production around the new species of the “strategic chain of large blueberries”。
Starting in 2021, the technical results of the chen japanese team began to be used for industrial extension. In that year, the south china agricultural university, together with guangzhou's guangzhou company for the development of science and technology, carried out a study entitled "blueberry project for south china facilities " , with chen zhen yi as lead technical expert, and the horticulture team of the horticultural institute's facilities participated in the formation of the blueberry innovation research team for the facility, which jointly and multidisciplinaryly carried out the development of the whole industrial chain technology。
Today, on the blueberry plantation of the food and agriculture organization of fushan, the park is equipped with modern planting techniques such as steel-mounted sheds, foundational mono-baskets, and fully automated integrated water fertilization drip irrigation systems, to achieve full-scale intelligence surveillance and to ensure that each plant is “water-filled” and “mass-fed” at every stage of its growth。
The project operator, guangzhou jijiang agricultural technology co. Ltd., mr. Lin zhong, made a presentation, using advanced planting techniques, on the scale and industrialization of blueberry cultivation, with a secondary rate of not more than 2 per cent and a fruit diameter of over 18 mm. This year, the market is expected to be over 210,000 pounds。
“seeing that the technical requirements, the technical indicators, have been largely achieved as we thought it would be, this spring is one of my happiest spring holidays.” chen told the reporters。
The market for blueberries is very broad, as it was previously forecasted in chen yu. Many fruit chains, supermarket chains, electrical platforms, export companies, etc. Are negotiating with teams, some have signed agreements and others are trying to work together, and the supply of blueberry products is currently out of demand。
The road to blueberry industry continues to widen. Jiang guange environmental technology ltd. Has been working on many fields of deep-forest farming, environmental protection, municipal and ecological construction for over a decade. Zhang jinghua, chairman of the company, had a good outlook for this type of blueberries, and decided to develop this blueberry product together。
On 12 january, zhangqing jia kang blueberry base began work on the foundation. The first phase of the project, 230 acres, invested $30 million, completed infrastructure and planting in april 2023 and the first year of harvest in january-april 2024。
Zhang chonghua indicated that, based on a sustained expansion of the construction scale, companies would continuously upgrade quality, build high-quality, high-end blueberry brands and extend the blueberry industry chain to make the blueberry base a niche agricultural priority, help solve local employment problems, bring people together for wealth and boost rural renewal。
“we grow blueberries, which do not occupy basic agricultural land, and we can use some abandoned, uncultivable land, as long as there are large tracts of flat land that can be built.” chen yui said that this would result in substantial land rents and local employment for farmers。
As the outlook for the market continues to improve, the number of actors involved in the industrialization of this type of blueberry is growing, and the pattern of cooperation is becoming more diverse, and chen yangyuan and his team are moving towards the goal of expanding the area of 10,000 acres this year. (reporter long pei)
