Walking into the Winter Agricultural Expo Park, compared with the snow and ice outside, it is green and warm as spring.

Tomatoes cultivated under tree shaped soilless cultivation mode. Photographed by Chen Kewei

Walking into the Winter Agricultural Expo Park, compared with the snow and ice outside, it is green and warm as spring. "Is this tomato real? How can the branches grow so tall?" Hearing the question from the tourists, staff member Li Jianping happily plucked the leaves to show the tourists, and salesperson Xiao Yu even picked up a small tomato for tourists to taste.

"For these vegetables growing on high shelves, we all adopt the treelike soilless cultivation mode, including tomatoes, winter melons and snake melons. Treelike cultivation can increase the maximum yield of a single plant. Each tomato here can produce 1500 kg of fruit, and it is ornamental and popular science." Zhang Donger, a technician of the Agricultural Expo Garden, introduced, "The hydroponic vegetables have fundamentally solved the problem of pesticide residues in the soil caused by the use of pesticides due to diseases and pests in vegetable planting through the scientific regulation of nutrient solution formula, so that consumers can eat more at ease."

The high-tech soilless cultivation exhibition area focuses on the demonstration and promotion of a variety of three-dimensional cultivation models for leafy vegetables, such as "zigzag" shaped pipes, "back" shaped pipes, three-dimensional leaky windows, vertical cradles, etc., as well as the tree shaped soilless cultivation technology for solanaceous fruits and melons, the ecological soilless cultivation technology for fish and vegetable symbiosis, and the triangular and hanging fog cultivation technology, so as to realize the diversification of high-tech models for soilless cultivation, It plays a leading and exemplary role in modern agricultural planting.

"Compared with the high-tech soilless cultivation exhibition area, the large-scale soilless cultivation exhibition area displays soilless cultivation technologies with stronger practicability, higher applicability and lower equipment costs. The models, facilities, equipment and technologies here are cost-effective for farmers, and also have guiding significance. For vegetable planting, soilless cultivation technology can effectively prevent soil continuous cropping diseases and physiological obstacles caused by soil salt accumulation, and fully meet the needs of crops for nutrition, water, gas and other environmental conditions. At the same time, the basic materials for cultivation can be recycled, so it has the characteristics of saving water, fertilizer, labor, high yield, high quality, etc. " Zhang Donger said.

In the substrate cultivation exhibition area, new varieties such as persimmon, black eggplant, eggplant and pepper are growing well and very popular. This year, the Winter Agricultural Expo Garden mainly displays five categories of varieties, namely, pepper, eggplant, cucumber, shellfish pumpkin and persimmon. At this Winter Agricultural Expo, many tourists order vegetable gift bags through WeChat and telephone. Xiao Yu said, "We pick, pack and box the vegetables we ordered that day every morning. With the approaching of the Spring Festival, the number of orders is gradually increasing. Now we have to pick 500 kilograms of leaf vegetables every day, and the supply of fresh vegetables falls short of demand."