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I thought the Newdists might be interested to know that a team of Russian scientists just grew their first wintertime watermelons in Antarctica.
From the Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com/...
“Russian agricultural researchers say they successfully grew eight watermelons at a station greenhouse as part of a wider initiative to grow plants at Russia’s polar stations. The experiments are also intended to test the potential of agricultural production at future outposts in space…
The watermelons were planted without soil and grew using a combination of soil substitute, fertilizers and special lighting. In the absence of bees and other pollinators, scientists hand-pollinated the plants.
It worked: After planting the watermelon seeds in early April and pollinating them in late May, the first fruits grew by July.
The watermelons’ ‘taste and aroma are not worse than’ domestic ones, said Andrey Teplyakov, a geophysicist at the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, which runs Vostok Station, in a translated news release. Researchers harvested eight fruits that were up to 5.11 inches in diameter, the heaviest of which weighed about 2.2 pounds.”
Next up, then, are space watermelons. Wouldn’t it be nice if every Russian focused on watermelons rather than world domain?
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