Busy bees and worms help the harvest
Print Edition
BEES introduced by local farmers from Europe and earthworms are helping strawberries and melons to harvest in Jiading.
The first year after bees from Italy started pollinating at Dingta Village in Jiading Industrial Zone, the number of malformed fruits was significantly reduced — and today they glow, looking both succulent and fresh.
Hives crisscross the 70 hectares of strawberry-growing land at the village — and the buzzing bees make their contribution to the growth of varieties of strawberries, which are tagged as an organic product by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Meanwhile, bees from the Netherlands work at the cantaloupe base in Jiading. They pollinate the melons through vibration, visiting up to 17 flowers a minute. Rain doesn’t worry the giant honey bees, who are able to work even when temperatures fall below 10 degrees Celsius.
A hive of giant bees costs 400 yuan (US$58) and the length of its service is around a month, but each hive is estimated to save 1,100 yuan in labor costs. Thanks to the bees, the numbers of malformed fruits are also reduced.
Earthworms too help to improve the plantation of cantaloupes in Jiading.
Planting melons leads to soil compaction that can affect their quality, but earthworms do a good job to improve the situation.
They are able to increase soil nutrients, loosen soil, as well as reducing soil salinization. After the introduction of earthworms, the production of cantaloupes rose by 20 percent.
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