During the spring ploughing preparation season, Wu Donghe's farm in the Dongqiao Town is bustling with activity. On February 26, a reporter visited the farm's 16-acre contiguous seedling greenhouse and saw rows upon rows of vibrant green watermelon seedlings neatly arranged, full of vitality. Farmers coming to purchase seedlings were streaming in endlessly, while workers busily and orderly carried out tasks such as moving seedlings, irrigating, trimming leaves, and sowing seeds, marking the prelude to spring farming.

Wu Donghe, the person in charge of the farm, explained: "The seedling cultivation schedule is very flexible and entirely based on the farmers' needs. The earliest we start is September of the previous year, and it continues until May or June of the following year. This year, because the Beginning of Spring came early, our seedling work has been advanced accordingly."

To create the optimal growing environment for the seedlings, the temperature inside the greenhouse is strictly controlled between 15 and 20 degrees Celsius. Wu Donghe elaborated on the insulation techniques: "In winter, when temperatures are low, we use three layers of film (two outer layers and one inner layer) for insulation. Now that spring has arrived and temperatures are rising, we remove one layer, leaving just two layers." She predicts that if the weather remains sunny, the earliest batch of watermelons grown from these seedlings could hit the market around mid-to-late April, while later batches will be available after May.

Currently, the farm's seedling production per cycle remains stable at around 800,000 plants. These high-quality seedlings are primarily supplied to watermelon growers in Ningbo and surrounding areas, and they have also attracted orders from places like Jiangsu and Shaoxing.

In the seedling greenhouse, the reporter also observed an important technique to enhance the seedlings' disease resistance—grafting. Workers skillfully grafted watermelon scions onto pumpkin rootstocks. "Pumpkin roots are more resistant to diseases," Wu Donghe explained. "Grafted watermelon seedlings can effectively resist Fusarium wilt and anthracnose, allowing for continuous cropping (i.e., planting repeatedly on the same plot of land). Moreover, as long as you choose the right pumpkin rootstock, it basically doesn't affect the quality and taste of the watermelons."