The Space Seedlings of Tominari Persimmon are growing well

"When the autumn ends, the frost falls persimmon red." As the hometown of China's persimmons, Fuping County has ushered in the persimmon harvest season. It's time to make persimmon cakes again, and in the Industrial Park of Fuping Tianxi Persimmon Town, there is an unusually busy scene.

"Double Eleven" is approaching, and persimmon cake orders are hot. Workers are busy peeling and hanging the persimmons picked that day, and the peeled persimmons shine in the sunlight. When the peeled persimmons are neatly hung on the drying rack, the delicious taste of the "persimmon red" original persimmon cake begins to brew from this moment. What is even more exciting is that the Fuping persimmon seeds, which are equipped with the Long March 5B carrier rocket and have experienced 67 hours of space travel, have been carefully cultivated and transplanted, and 59 plants are currently growing well, which is expected to help Fuping build a persimmon-level industrial cluster. The reporter saw in the trial breeding area of Fuping Tianxi Persimmon Town that the surrounding area had long been surrounded by a wooden fence. The highest has reached 60 centimeters, the lowest is only 12 centimeters, 59 persimmon seedlings are uneven, but they are arranged neatly, reflecting the greenery of life, a breeze blows, the leaves shake and tremble, as if waving to the onlookers.

Liang, general manager of The Tianxi Persimmon Town Base, told reporters that Fuping County is a rare persimmon eugenic area in the country, and the large pointed persimmons widely planted here are famous varieties of persimmons. However, it is often affected by anthrax, and in severe cases, persimmons have almost no harvest. While anthrax has caused growers to exhaust their brains, it has also delayed the rapid development of Fuping's creation of a persimmon-level industrial cluster. Let the Fuping persimmon core "go to heaven", so that the Fuping persimmon will be protected from anthrax. To this end, at the beginning of 2020, they specially selected more than 300 grams (pieces) of persimmon nuclei from the eugenic area of Fuping persimmon to prepare to carry the Long March 5B carrier rocket, so that Fuping persimmon can complete space breeding in the sky. At 18:00 on May 5, 2020, The Fuping Persimmon Core successfully "went to heaven". On April 9, 2021, Fuping Jianki, which carried the Long March 5B carrier rocket and completed the space environmental impact test mission for 67 hours, was handed over to the Tianxi Persimmon Town Base of Dafang Group, along with the Nine-Eyed Lotus Space Seed. On the day of the handover, the Space Seed of Fuping Persimmon was sown at the Space Breeding Demonstration Base of Tianxi Persimmon Town.

According to reports, space breeding, that is, space breeding, is the use of space technology, through the retrievable spacecraft and other spacecraft to carry crop seeds, tissues and other materials into the space, through strong radiation, microgravity, high vacuum, weak magnetic field and other special environmental effects in space, so that biological genes change, and then return to the ground for breeding. After many generations of selection, excellent germplasm resources or excellent varieties are finally obtained. The budding rate and survival rate of Fuping persimmon kernels are low, and they are generally developed in the form of grafting. Of the more than 300 grams (pieces) selected this time, 59 plants sprouted and survived, and are currently growing well, and the results have reached expectations. In the future, under the guidance of experts and professors, the space breeding demonstration base will carefully care for and cultivate the Seeds of Fuping Persimmons that have completed up to 67 hours of space travel on the Long March 5B carrier rocket, cooperate with their variability testing and research, and hope to breed new varieties with strong resistance to anthrax, in order to make the cutting-edge technology of "space breeding" take root and let more people eat persimmons that have been bred in space; and carry out space agriculture promotion and science popularization education. Actively help Fuping build a persimmon-level industrial cluster of 10 billion.

(Reporters Ren Rong and Wang Dongqi)