One gourd seedling gives birth to 421 gourd babies Tangshan farmers break the world record

Chinanews.com, Tangshan, October 7 (Bai Yunshui Sun Yi)-Zheng Baoping in front of the camera lens smiled happily from ear to ear, holding the certificate of world record that he had just received. It was the 421 gourds produced by a gourd seedling in his yard that won this certificate for him.

On the 7th, Zheng Baoping, a farmer living in Caofeidian District, Tangshan, Hebei Province, received his long-awaited "gift", a certificate from the World Records Association. The record of "one gourd seedling with the most gourds in the world" was born.

Zheng Baoping, a farmer in Caofeidian, Tangshan, holds a world record certificate and happily takes a group photo with his 421 cucurbits. Photo by Sun Yi

After Chinanews.com reported on September 6 the anecdote of more than 300 "Huluwa" of a gourd seedling knot in Zheng Baoping's family, local villagers were amazed, and the impact of the report led him to the idea of applying for a world record.

Zheng Baoping said that after counting one by one by four staff members of the notarization office of Caofeidian District, his family's gourd seedlings produced a total of 421 gourds, more than three times the 119 in the previous world record. The notary then sent the inventory video to the headquarters of the World Records Association in Hong Kong. Since then, after the preliminary examination, review and 20 days of publicity by the World Records Association, Zheng Baoping finally got his wish and won the world record certificate.

When I walked into Zheng Baoping's house again, the original farmhouse has taken on a new look. In order to welcome the birth of the world record, Zheng Baoping renovated the courtyard, ranging from 18-meter-long inkjet decoration to red rope tied to the gourd, each reflecting the difference of this gourd seedling.

The gourd seedling, which won the world record, was planted by Zheng Baoping in early May this year. It is usually only watered and weeded on a daily basis, without special treatment. But the gourd seedling grew unexpectedly, with vines about three centimeters in diameter climbing up the steel bars in the yard, covering the whole metal grid with branches and leaves, like a huge sunshade. Among the branches and leaves, there are as many as 421 gourds of different shapes, the big ones are 8 or 9 centimeters long and the small ones are about 3 or 4 centimeters long.

Zheng Baoping said he planned to rename the courtyard to "Baoping Hulu Yuan" and open it to visitors free of charge as a tourist attraction. At present, these gourds are being "scraped", and then they can be made into specimens in order to preserve the original form of the gourd on the vine for a long time.

To Zheng Baoping's surprise, before the gourd specimen was finished, some visitors to the Caofeidian wetland had already visited his "Baoping Hulu Garden" as a scenic spot. Most of these admiring tourists come from Beijing and Tianjin, reaching more than 200 a day.

"the 2016 World Horticultural Expo will be held in Tangshan, Hebei Province. I hope to move this' magical 'gourd to the Expo so that more people can see this record-setting cucurbit seedling." Zheng Baoping said. (end)