Vegetable Expert Chen Tianzhong's Growing Experience

 

    Speaking of the economic benefits the "tomato regeneration technique" has brought to the villagers, Chen Tianzhong was full of pride. But when it came to the research process, Chen Tianzhong said: "You need to be a person who pays attention to life, always noticing the things happening around you; sometimes it will bring you unexpected gains."   

    

    While trial-growing a new tomato variety, he inadvertently discovered that tomatoes which had already been fully harvested had sprouted and flowered again. This reminded him that he had once read about eggplant regeneration techniques in a relevant book, so he thought: "Can tomatoes regenerate just like eggplants?" Chen Tianzhong then pruned and fertilized the tomatoes and kept detailed records. Unexpectedly, before the normal tomatoes had even been sown, the regenerated tomatoes had already finished being harvested, amounting to a full extra season compared with normal tomato cultivation. So Chen Tianzhong organized his notes and named this technique the "tomato regeneration technique." This year, he used this technique for all of his two tomato-growing greenhouses, and as a result a single greenhouse increased its yield by more than 3,000 kg, gaining more than 10,000 yuan in economic benefit from just one season. He said the comprehensive benefits of the "tomato regeneration technique" should be calculated this way: it saves a large amount of labor, saves fertilizer and seeds, and also adds one extra season of yield.    

 

    Now, the "tomato regeneration technique" is being promoted throughout the county.    

 

    Why was Chen Tianzhong able to develop the "tomato regeneration technique"? Was it really just by chance, as he himself says?    

 

    In 1998, Chen Tianzhong was the first to contract 9 mu of farmland in the village, preparing to lead the villagers in growing greenhouse vegetables. At that time, many villagers lacked technical know-how and worried they would not grow them well, so they held a skeptical attitude and hesitated to get started. Chen Tianzhong understood in his heart that the villagers' worries were not unfounded. To grow off-season greenhouse vegetables well, technique is the key. To this end, he bought all kinds of vegetable-growing technique books and carefully studied them at night; during the day he soaked in the fields with his notebook, recording in detail the temperature, humidity, and light for cultivation and management, as well as the vegetables' growth conditions and flower color, fruit shape, and so on. After more than 3 months of careful cultivation, 3 greenhouses brought in more than 10,000 yuan in income. The villagers saw the hope of becoming prosperous from him and began one after another to learn techniques and grow off-season vegetables. In order to better guide the villagers in growing vegetables well, Chen Tianzhong and the village "two committees" team studied the matter and decided to spend a large sum to invite an agricultural technology expert from Xuchang, Henan. Guanshan's vegetable greenhouses suddenly grew to 106, and each vegetable greenhouse created more than 4,000 yuan in annual economic benefit. The villagers got a taste of the benefits of growing greenhouse vegetables.    

 

    But at this time Chen Tianzhong was thinking about another question: growing greenhouse vegetables had multiplied the economic benefit several times over compared with growing traditional crops, but could it be doubled again on the current basis? To achieve this goal, he could only rely on technique, so he began introducing new varieties and conducting comparative trials.    

 

    In 2001, he began introducing the tomato variety "Shanghai 906" and trial-planted 0.5 mu of land. As a result, he found that this variety tasted good, especially when eaten raw, but its yield was low, its economic benefit was not high, and it was not suitable for planting.    

 

    In 2002, he introduced the high-quality Dutch tomato variety "Baili." Since there was no relevant technical material for growing this variety, he explored it on his own, but the tomatoes he grew were not ideal in color or fruit shape, consumers were unwilling to buy them, and it was also not suitable for planting.    

 

    After the failure of introducing two new varieties for planting, Chen Tianzhong did not become discouraged. He thought that the introduced new varieties should be compared in trial plantings. In 2003, he introduced two kinds of tomatoes at the same time, "Zhefen 202" produced by the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences and "Jinlong Fenhong" produced by the Hangzhou Vegetable Research Institute. Through trial planting and comparison, he found that the "Zhefen 202" tomato produced by the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences not only tasted good, but also had good fruit shape and color, was very favored by consumers in the market, and more importantly, this variety had a high yield. The heaviest single tomato of this variety he grew reached 0.6 kg, and the economic benefit was very high.