Stunningly beautiful tulips in blossom on Zijingang Campus
Located in the western area of Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University, is a small plot with pink tulips in bud or in blossom. These tulips are tended by three students from the College of Agriculture and Biotechnology.
The newly-imported tulip bulb from the Netherlands is as large as an egg, but it will be reduced to the size of a quail egg due to nutrition absorption after one-year growth. The degenerated bulb cannot bloom for lack of nutrients, so new bulbs will have to be imported from the Netherlands again.
This problem may be able to be addressed by these students.
According to them, they have mastered a new technology—the no-tillage technology for tulip cultivation. These tulips are buried in a natural substrate instead of being grown in soil. At present, they are filing a patent for this special technology.
Their dream starts from this 60 m2 plot, but it will call for a laborious process to cultivate a massive quantity of bulbs which can be re-grown several times by experimenting, screening and perfecting the cultivation technology.