Why is the price of watermelons at 200 yuan each in Ninghai, Zhejiang still in short supply?

The appearance is round, the skin is green, and it is evenly distributed with dark green wavy textures. This seems to be an ordinary watermelon.

However, if you cut a knife from the middle and jump into the red and yellow flesh of the eye, it will show that it is different; if you taste it again, the mouth is sweet and crisp, and there is a kind of shaved ice taste after being chilled, which is especially cool to relieve the heat on a hot day. The name "two-color ice cream watermelon" comes from this.

Since the beginning of summer this year, the new watermelon variety, bred by the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences and grown by an agricultural cooperative in Ninghai, has received widespread attention, even though the price is as high as 200 yuan each. So far, about 10,000 two-color ice cream watermelons produced by the cooperative have been sold out, still attracting a large number of customers from Shanghai, Jiangsu and other places to pick and order.

What's the difference between a watermelon with ice cream taste?

A harsh melon sutra

Walking into the workshop of Ninghai Jinlongpu Agricultural Cooperative, the ground was covered with two-color ice cream watermelons of similar size and fullness. The workers carefully put them one by one in foam cartons and weighed them on electronic scales. Except for the packing box, each watermelon weighs about 5 kilos.

"from seedling raising to planting, irrigation, plant protection, preservation, storage, and sales, the whole process should be managed meticulously." According to you Hongwei, director of the cooperative, before planting two-color ice cream watermelons, it is necessary to test the overall ecological environment of the melon land, including taking water samples and whether the soil samples are up to the standard. Only when all the conditions are met can they be planted. In the process of planting, it needs to be operated by farmers who have more than 6 years of experience in growing melons. A few years ago, a local melon farmer once planted 10 mu of this variety of watermelon. due to technical management problems, the fruit was almost out of harvest because of its sour flesh after ripening.

In the hot watermelon greenhouse, farmer Qin Wenjiang is busy picking watermelons while talking about the almost harsh "classics of planting melons": every Spring Festival, they cultivate the melon land intensively, lay drip irrigation belts, plastic film, etc., and run to a seaside chicken farm dozens of kilometers away to collect organic fertilizer and transport it back to the ground as base fertilizer. After the Spring Festival, melon seedlings are transplanted from the greenhouse to the greenhouse, with a limit of 400 plants per mu, at 2 yuan per plant. When the melon vine spreads and blossoms, the melon farmer gets up and sets in the morning and sets the night to travel between the melon shed artificial pollination, must not use Ziguoling, expanding agent and other drugs, and each plant is only allowed to bear 1 fruit; when harvesting, this variety of watermelon can only harvest one crop, not the second crop, while ordinary watermelons can be harvested in multiple crops according to the growth of melon vines.

According to you Hongwei, because the two-color ice cream watermelon is more difficult to grow than ordinary watermelon, and the yield is relatively low, now they have only planted 30 mu. As of early July, there were only about 10,000 watermelons in line with the standard. However, the charm of this kind of watermelon is not small. Many melon farmers in Ninghai, Yuyao and other places have signed agreements with cooperatives to produce two-color ice cream watermelons in strict accordance with the planting standards for green watermelon products established by Jinlongpu.

Currently, cooperatives are working on designing Wechat barcodes. At that time, as long as a scan, the two-color ice cream watermelon growth, sales links, as well as melon farmers' names, contact information and other information will be displayed on the mobile phone, so that consumers can trace the whole process.

The difficult road of research and development

Gu Weihong, its inventor and researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, has the most say about the origin of two-color ice cream watermelon.

In 1988, after graduating from university, Gu Weihong joined the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences to engage in watermelon breeding. Two-color ice cream watermelon is the first new watermelon variety she has cultivated painstakingly in her many years of career.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the watermelon variety most recognized by the market and sold all over the country was a watermelon variety called "* 8424". However, Gu Weihong believes that with the continuous economic and social development, people's demand for watermelons will become increasingly diversified, and the cultivation of high-end products with good quality and characteristics is a major trend of the watermelon industry in the future.

"the breeding of new varieties depends on resources, technology and unique vision, as well as countless studies and experiments." Gu Weihong said that two-color ice cream watermelon is not a genetically modified watermelon, but a breakthrough and innovation in watermelon planting technology.

How bumpy the road to scientific research is. In the late 1990s, when Gu Weihong introduced the first successful two-color ice cream watermelon to the market, it was stopped because of the unstable color of the watermelon. Since then, in numerous experiments, Gu Weihong found that this instability is mainly caused by changes in temperature and light environment. As long as these factors are well controlled during the growth and development of watermelon, the color can gradually stabilize.

This study fills the gap in the genetic theory of watermelon color. At the same time, she also used bean cake fertilizer and extract as raw materials to successfully develop a special topdressing for two-color ice cream watermelon, so that the melon seedlings ate special health products without the use of other fertilizers and pesticides in the growth process.

In 2005, you Hongwei, chairman of Jinlongpu Agricultural Cooperative, took a fancy to the market potential of this kind of watermelon. After several twists and turns, Gu Weihong asked for trial planting, and spent 300000 yuan to buy out the variety production and distribution rights from the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences for five years.

A magical new product

In 2008, the first batch of two-color ice cream watermelons carefully cultivated by you Hongwei was born in a cooperative located on the banks of Hu Chengang in Sanmen Bay.

You Hongwei still remembers that at that time, due to the lack of popularity and the relatively high price, people did not like this kind of watermelon. With the scorching sun on his members' heads, there was still little interest in promoting it in the streets. And the high production cost input in advance also makes many farmers do not dare to plant on a large scale. A melon farmer calculated an account: based on the output of 300 standard two-color ice cream watermelons per mu, his income was only about 15000 yuan, while the cost input per mu was 6500 yuan. Excluding labor costs, there was almost nothing left.

How to make two-color ice cream watermelon more widely promoted? Gu Weihong has been trying to find a way. Since this kind of watermelon can only be planted once a year and harvested only once a year, after successful breeding, she devoted herself to studying the matching cultivation techniques of two-color ice cream watermelon to reduce production costs and risks for melon farmers as far as possible.

"High quality and high price is the development direction of agricultural products in the future." Gu Weihong said that she is full of confidence in this new variety and will further expand the planting scope and sow seeds in stages next year, so as to prolong the supply period of two-color ice cream watermelons and let more consumers eat high-quality watermelons with unique taste. As long as melon farmers sign the "standardized planting Agreement" and the "up-to-Standard purchase Agreement", from the beginning of transplanting melon seedlings, the technical research group will track farmers to provide quality services, and all watermelons grown in line with the standardized process will be purchased at superior prices. In case of natural disasters, all losses of farmers are borne by enterprises, in order to reduce the planting risk of melon farmers.

You Hongwei also has his own plans for the future. He told reporters that while expanding and strengthening the watermelon industry, planting all kinds of vegetables, and factory breeding, cooperatives are currently working on building an innovative modern agricultural complex that integrates the integrated development of one, two, three production and multi-industry forms, with a total investment of more than 7000 yuan in the first phase. construction has begun. At that time, Jinlongpu cooperative will become a new carrier of regional modern agricultural development, promote industrial structure adjustment and transformation and upgrading, increase farmers' income and increase agricultural efficiency.