Earthworm "poop" produces good watermelons that can be sold for 20 yuan in three jin.

A few days ago, Xihongsi Village, Kangzhuang Town, Yanqing County, Beijing, used earthworm dung instead of ordinary soil for the first time, and soilless watermelons planted were matured and put on the market at a picking price of 20 yuan each.

In April this year, grower Ma Dejun took out three greenhouses for experiments, laying 18 cm thick earthworm dung and hemp cakes as substrates for soilless watermelon cultivation. It is understood that earthworm dung is the excrement of earthworms fed with cow dung. The reason why it is a good organic fertilizer is that the earthworm itself only absorbs a small part of the nutrients in cow manure, and most of the nutrient elements are still retained in earthworm manure. And after the transformation of earthworms, some harmful substances in cow dung are decomposed, and earthworm dung is non-toxic and harmless, which can not only be used as fertilizer for fruits and vegetables, but also preserve fertilizer and water, and improve the soil, so it can be used as both substrate and topdressing. In addition, the substrate made of earthworm manure and hemp cake has physical properties such as water absorption, water retention and strong air permeability, which can promote photosynthesis, resist diseases and insect pests and inhibit harmful bacteria and soil-borne diseases, so as to improve the quality of agricultural products.

This year, Lao Ma tried out two small watermelon varieties, L600 and Xinxiu. The ripe watermelon is slightly larger than the watermelon grown by ordinary methods, and the average weight of ordinary watermelon is about 1.5 kilograms. The average weight of watermelons produced by a mixture of earthworm dung and hemp cake is about 1.7 kilograms, and the total output of watermelons in each shed has increased by 15%.