At Russia’s research station in Antarctica, July brings perpetual darkness, and bitterly cold temperatures. But this winter brought Russian scientists living at the station a special treat: watermelons grown there as part of an agricultural experiment.
Russian agricultural researchers there successfully grew eight watermelons as part of a broader plan to grow plants at Russia’s polar stations. As the Washington Post notes,
The experiments are also intended to test the potential of agricultural production at future outposts in space.
Less than 1,000 miles away from the South Pole, Vostok research station is on bitterly cold land that in 1983 was home to Earth’s record-low air temperature: minus-128.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Nonetheless, researchers have already successfully grown tomatoes, peppers and herbs in special greenhouses.
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.
“Naturally, all polar explorers were happy to remember the taste of summer. Even the observation of seedlings, growth, appearance of fruits and their increase brought positive emotions,” Teplyakov said.
Next, the researchers said, they will attempt other crops, including berries and cucumbers.
