The planting story of peach grower Pei Sufang

    On June 13, walking into the honey peach orchard of Pei Sufang, a female employee of the "Aijia" Vegetable Company under the 86th Central Regiment, one saw the peach trees heavy with fruit, each fresh, red and luscious honey peach hanging among the green branches and leaves, appearing and disappearing from view. This scene of abundant harvest lit up Pei Sufang's smiling face and made her life even sweeter.

    In February 1996, Pei Sufang and her husband Wei Xiangjun came from the Pingliang area of Gansu to the 16th Company of the regiment and began contracting land to grow cotton, and later switched to growing Red Globe grapes at the regiment's Third Horticulture Company. In 2003, while growing Red Globe grapes, Pei Sufang also began growing greenhouse vegetables, and through the couple's hard work their life gradually became more prosperous. When Pei Sufang was in her hometown in Gansu, the area had grown honey peaches, and since she had not seen anyone else growing them in the Bole area, Pei Sufang thought this was a business opportunity. In 2004, Pei Sufang obtained a honey peach sapling from a fellow Gansu native surnamed Cai and planted it in her own yard, and by June 2006 the tree bore fresh, sweet peaches, which greatly encouraged Pei Sufang and boosted her confidence. In April 2007, Pei Sufang introduced 300 Dazaohong honey peach saplings from **Hutubi County and planted them on 5 mu of open ground in front of the greenhouse. Because heavy snow fell in winter and temperatures were extremely low, the couple bent down the branches and buried them deep before winter to ensure the saplings survived the winter safely. After 3 years of planting and management, by this year the honey peach trees finally bore fruit. Looking at the abundant fruit borne on the trees, all the past effort and hardship vanished like smoke. Pei Sufang also intercropped peanuts and cabbage between the rows of peach trees, and with two greenhouses and 1 mu of open-ground green beans, plus 9 mu of field Red Globe grapes now in full fruit-bearing stage, this year is another bumper harvest year for Pei Sufang's family!

    Pei Sufang said: "With 300 trees, a conservative estimate is that each tree producing 20 kg of fruit is no problem. The current market price is between 15 yuan and 20 yuan. After deducting production costs, these honey peach trees can bring the family at least 30,000 yuan in net income!"