Sa Dec flower village, famous for its long history and large area of over 500 hectares, has become an attractive destination for tourists thanks to its fertile soil conditions and the sophisticated flower growing profession of the people. However, the flower growing medium here is mainly made from straw and rice husks, which does not ensure disease-free and specificity for each type of flower. At the same time, the manual production method makes the product cost high.

To improve the quality of growing media, Dong Thap Department of Science and Technology has cooperated with Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry to carry out a project to pilot the production of growing substrate materials on an industrial scale. The research team applied the composting method, turning agricultural by-products. such as coconut peat, cow dung and sugarcane sludge into useful substrates after the composting process. New substrates, such as MX1 and MX2, are improved with specific ingredient ratios and strictly controlled incubation processes to ensure stability and disease-free. The resulting products meet quality standards QCVN 01-189:2019/BNNPTNT.

These types of substrates are specifically adjusted for each type of main ornamental flower in Sa Dec, such as climbing roses, zinnias and etc. The experiment showed that the economic efficiency of ornamental flowers increased from 24.4% to 32.4% compared to the old substrate model. People can apply this growing substrate production process on a small scale (10 - 15 tons/batch of compost), creating opportunities to replicate the model and optimize the use of agricultural by-products in the production of clean and quality ornamental flowers.