Southern apples successfully grown in Guiyang, Hunan

Apples, a fruit suited to growing in the north, hit the market every October. But on July 11, when reporters walked into Maxiang Village, Fangyuan Town, Guiyang County, they saw ripe red apples covering the hillsides - these are "southern apples." Yuan Guangming, the village's leading grower, said their apples had already been on the market for a week, more than 3 months earlier than northern apples.

"I never imagined apples could be grown in the south!" At the southern apple research base in Maxiang Village, tourist Mr. Zhong ate a crisp, sweet apple with a look of surprise.

"Plant one year, bear fruit the second year, early to market, huge market space, scarce supply, good prices..." Yuan Guangming, who was promoting southern apples to customers, looked delighted. This year he sold 160,000 southern apple saplings at 15 yuan each, shipping them as far as Hubei, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Yunnan, Fujian, Chongqing, Jiangxi and other places.

Yuan Guangming said he first introduced apples in 1998, but after several years of growing them, the trees bore only a few scattered, unpleasant "bitter fruits," and family and friends urged him to "cut them down and switch to other crops."

But Yuan Guangming was born unwilling to give up. He bought books on apple cultivation and studied hard, went to Luochuan in Shaanxi and Linyi in Shanxi to learn growing techniques, and figured things out through practice. After spending more than 10 years, he finally mastered a scientific approach to fruit tree cultivation, pruning, grafting and pest and disease control. His 50 mu of southern apples could reach a yield of more than 5,000 kg this year, selling for about 20 yuan per kg.