What are the good practices behind the bumper melon and vegetable harvest in Qingyuan?
“This year is a bumper harvest year!” In a melon shed in Nanwangzhuang, Qingyuan District, Baoding City, Hebei Province, a melon farmer was happily carrying watermelons out of his greenhouse one by one, waiting to load them onto the truck of a melon buyer. This is one of the few greenhouses in Nanwangzhuang where the melons have not yet been fully harvested. In several nearby greenhouses, the melon farmers have already begun clearing the vines and preparing to plant vegetables.
Qingyuan is dominated by sandy soil, and influenced by these soil conditions, the history of watermelon cultivation here is long-standing. In 2014, Qingyuan District began building a 10,000-mu modern demonstration park for melons and vegetables with Nanwangzhuang as its core. At present, the park has begun to gradually play a role in promoting ecological planting and exploring new planting models.
Whether harmful pesticides were used is decided by the bees. “Many greenhouses in Nanwangzhuang use bee pollination.” Guo Yong, vice chairman of the Nanwangzhuang Melon, Fruit and Vegetable Professional Cooperative in Qingyuan District, said, “Hand pollination takes time and effort, so now we leave it to the bees. Bees are very sensitive to harmful chemicals. Placing a beehive in the greenhouse to let bees pollinate not only saves labor but also eliminates the use of harmful chemicals.”
In addition to building beehives, greenhouse renovation is also a project that Nanwangzhuang Village has focused on. A farmer told the reporter that in order to encourage farmers to convert bamboo and wood greenhouses into steel-frame greenhouses and install drip irrigation facilities inside, last year the local government funded a subsidy of 3,000 yuan per mu for farmers carrying out greenhouse renovation.
The cooperative's seedling greenhouses are even more advanced. In order to keep the temperature inside the greenhouse constant and avoid excessively high summer temperatures affecting seedling growth, the cooperative specially introduced a set of equipment that cools the greenhouse through fans and water curtains, and starting equipment such as the automatic spraying system inside the greenhouse only requires a light press on the remote control in the farmer's hand. From treating diseases to preventing diseases, experts are invited to the fields
“In 2014, yellow leaf disease appeared in some greenhouses and nearly wiped out the harvest. The experts we invited took a look and said it was too late, it could not be saved.” Guo Yong said. Now, Nanwangzhuang Village has changed from “waiting for experts to come treat diseases” to “inviting experts to come prevent diseases,” and has carefully divided the various stages of watermelon growth, such as land preparation, seedling stage and flowering stage. Different experts are invited to explain at different stages, making it more authoritative and more targeted. With preventive measures properly in place, Nanwangzhuang did not have another outbreak of yellow leaf disease this year.
Experts who come to the fields also play an important role in trial planting of new varieties. In the experimental greenhouse, technician Guan Shiyi displayed new varieties grown with hanging vines, such as “Chaoyue Mengxiang,” “Xiangxiu” and “Chun Guniang.” Guan Shiyi told the reporter that with the hanging vine cultivation method, at most two melons can grow on one vine. By increasing planting density, the yield can reach more than 1.5 times that of ground planting, and this cultivation method also allows watermelons to absorb light more evenly by avoiding contact with the soil. Although they are a bit smaller than ordinary watermelons, their appearance is much better, and they can sometimes sell for 8 yuan per jin on the market.
At present, Qingyuan District is also preparing to work together with the Baoding Association for Science and Technology and the Beijing Daxing District Association for Science and Technology to jointly build a modern agricultural industrialization expert workstation, guide local farmers in pollution-free cultivation, and comprehensively establish a complete traceability system for agricultural product quality.
Understand the market before planting; market information is very important
The 10,000-mu modern demonstration park for melons and vegetables in Qingyuan District is mainly based on greenhouse planting. Compared with watermelons grown in season, they mature earlier. According to local melon farmers, Qingyuan's watermelons are mainly marketed from late May to early June, exactly when Shandong watermelons are almost sold out and Shanxi watermelons have not yet ripened.
“The timing of planting melons must be accurate. When Shandong's melons are sold out and the market supply cannot keep up, our melon farmers here can earn a bit more.” Guo Yong said, “In previous years there were also situations where prices could not go up. When melons from other places had not yet been sold out, the melons here were already ripe, and the interests of melon farmers were inevitably harmed.”
“We still hope that relatively authoritative channels can provide us with some market information.” A melon farmer nearby interjected, “At least tell us which days they planted over in Shandong. That way we can arrange our planting time better. For planting melons, there is a big difference between planting one day earlier or one day later!”
Reporter Zhang Cong, trainee reporters Zhao Yuheng and Meng Decai