The secret to growing a 14.7kg cabbage? Serenade your sprouts daily — that is, according to a group of green-fingered amateurs from Kaohsiung First Community University.
The giant vegetable — 10 times the size of an average cabbage — was grown by a group of 52 novice farmers at the community college who had spent the past year learning from scratch how to grow vegetables.
At a fundraiser on Saturday where the group displayed and sold the fruits of their labors for charity, members of the club said that singing and playing music to their patch of tomatoes, pumpkins, green peppers and cabbages had been key to the bountiful harvest.
Photo: CNA
Club head Yu Shu-yen (游淑燕) told reporters that each member of the club had been assigned a plot of land measuring 20 ping (66m2) to farm after completing 18 lessons on soil, water control, plant diseases and pests, plant selection, and ways to grow vegetables and fruits.
Club members cultivated their crops without using pesticides or chemical fertilizers.
Yu said they played music and sang their favorite songs to the vegetables every day to help them “grow up healthily.”
Speaking of the 14.7kg cabbage that stole the show at Saturday’s event, Yu said that certain species of cabbage normally take four to five months to mature, but this one had been harvested only four months after it was planted.
The cabbage could have grown bigger if it had not been harvested for the charity event, with Yu attributing the size of the vegetable to the “friendly farmland” on which it grew.
“It is the reward for the club’s long-term dedication to the promotion of non-toxic agriculture,” Yu said, adding that the approach protected plants from pollution.
SHIPS, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES: The ministry has announced changes to varied transportation industries taking effect soon, with a number of effects for passengers Beginning next month, the post office is canceling signature upon delivery and written inquiry services for international registered small packets in accordance with the new policy of the Universal Postal Union, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The new policy does not apply to packets that are to be delivered to China, the ministry said. Senders of international registered small packets would receive a NT$10 rebate on postage if the packets are sent from Jan. 1 to March 31, it added. The ministry said that three other policies are also scheduled to take effect next month. International cruise ship operators
HORROR STORIES: One victim recounted not realizing they had been stabbed and seeing people bleeding, while another recalled breaking down in tears after fleeing A man on Friday died after he tried to fight the knife-wielding suspect who went on a stabbing spree near two of Taipei’s busiest metro stations, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. The 57-year-old man, identified by his family name, Yu (余), encountered the suspect at Exit M7 of Taipei Main Station and immediately tried to stop him, but was fatally wounded and later died, Chiang said, calling the incident “heartbreaking.” Yu’s family would receive at least NT$5 million (US$158,584) in compensation through the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp’s (TRTC) insurance coverage, he said after convening an emergency security response meeting yesterday morning. National
PLANNED: The suspect visited the crime scene before the killings, seeking information on how to access the roof, and had extensively researched a 2014 stabbing incident The suspect in a stabbing attack that killed three people and injured 11 in Taipei on Friday had planned the assault and set fires at other locations earlier in the day, law enforcement officials said yesterday. National Police Agency (NPA) Director-General Chang Jung-hsin (張榮興) said the suspect, a 27-year-old man named Chang Wen (張文), began the attacks at 3:40pm, first setting off smoke bombs on a road, damaging cars and motorbikes. Earlier, Chang Wen set fire to a rental room where he was staying on Gongyuan Road in Zhongzheng District (中正), Chang Jung-hsin said. The suspect later threw smoke grenades near two exits
The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday launched a gift box to market honey “certified by a Formosan black bear” in appreciation of a beekeeper’s amicable interaction with a honey-thieving bear. Beekeeper Chih Ming-chen (池明鎮) in January inspected his bee farm in Hualien County’s Jhuosi Township (卓溪) and found that more than 20 beehives had been destroyed and many hives were eaten, with bear droppings and paw prints near the destroyed hives, the agency said. Chih returned to the farm to move the remaining beehives away that evening when he encountered a Formosan black bear only 20m away, the agency said. The bear
RSS