On September 8, 2009, the eighth Wang Tao selection activity came to an end in Feicheng, and a big peach weighing 685 grams finally won the crown.
It is said that Feitao is a unique variety of Feicheng, which is famous for its big size and high sugar content. Just by virtue of a fat peach, Li Zhimao, the new peach king, won a reward of an agricultural vehicle and a computer. Is his skill in growing peaches superb, or is there anything special about the peach trees he planted? Curiosity prompted us to visit Taoyuan in Feicheng.
This tree is 25 years old, and the peach king got married on this branch. There is nothing special about the shape of the number one tree, but it is incredible that the 25-year-old tree can produce 685 grams of big peaches.
It is understood that peach trees generally begin to bear fruit in 2 to 3 years, and the high-yield period is generally about 5 years, and the longest is only 15 years. What did Li Zhimao do to make this 25-year-old peach tree last forever? Under the guidance of local people, we came to Taoyuan.
Taonong told us that this is bean cake. As cake fertilizer, sprinkle it in the ground to increase the sugar content of peaches. It is a special fertilizer for fat peach, which is composed of many elements and has comprehensive effects.
Even with such special care, the fat peach, which has grown for four months, is still green and hard, only the size of an egg. Other varieties of peaches have been on the market for a month. It turns out that a fat peach takes six months to blossom, bear fruit and mature, which is the longest peach in China. It is not easy for peach farmers to gain market income. Even so, the status of Feitao in the eyes of farmers in Feicheng is still the highest.
This is an early-maturing peach. At the same time, it is much bigger than a fat peach, but the size of this fat peach will be more than one and a half times that of this peach when it matures.
Because the fat peach is still in the growth stage, we can't see the mature listing of the fat peach, but we are still full of curiosity about the unique quality of the fat peach. It is understood that the peach planting area in Feicheng has reached 6,543.8+10,000 mu, making it the largest city in the world, and it has been selected into the Shanghai Guinness Book of Records.
In this 6.5438+10,000 mu peach forest, the area of fat peaches accounts for one third. However, fat peaches not only have a long growth cycle, but also have high requirements for fertilizer and water, and are not resistant to storage and transportation after maturity. So, why do local peach farmers still have a soft spot for growing fat peaches?
It turns out that the fat peach was domesticated from the wild and has a long planting history. The specific planting time of Feicheng should be said to have started from the Spring and Autumn Period. In the early Spring and Autumn Period, there lived a fat man in Feicheng, where a fat country was once established. During this period, the local people have started to grow peaches at home or have a history of growing peaches in pieces. Because it was in a fat town, it later evolved into a fat city, and the peaches planted were called fat peaches.
Fu Zhiting, who explained to us, has been engaged in literature and history materials for many years in CPPCC, specializing in the history of Feitao. According to him, the extensive cultivation of fat peaches in Feicheng originated from a long history. So, is there really a fat country in history? Does the delicious fat peach really come from such a little-known country?
We came to Feicheng Archives, hoping to find some clues about Feizi Country and Feitao. 1908, the chronicle of feicheng county, wrote that there is feicheng county in the Taishan volume of hanshu geography, and yingshao is called the fat country. Ying Shao was a historian in the Eastern Han Dynasty. It can be inferred that at least 1700 years ago, the fat country, the predecessor of Feicheng, did exist. So, did the planting history of Feitao also start from 1700 years ago?
As for the origin of the fat peach, according to the information we have at present, it can be traced back to a novel Youyang Za in the Tang Dynasty, which tells the story of a Xiantao in qi zhou. It is said that there is a history of secretariat in Jizhou, and once a magical peach tree forest was discovered in a county on the border of Jizhou. Scholars of later generations believe that what he said about qi zhou is the Taolin in the county near Jinan today, which is probably based on the relevant records of Feicheng Taoyuan.
According to legend, Feicheng Peach has a history of 1700 years, but according to written records, it has a history of more than 300 years. Feicheng peach is not a single variety in the production and planting process, including natural variation, hybridization and grafting.
Judging from the thousand-year planting history of Feicheng, peaches can be regarded as authentic China native fruits, and Feicheng is just one of the fertile soil for them. At present, the planting area of peach trees in the world ranks first among stone fruit trees, and it is one of the main fruits in many countries.
In this Local Records of Feicheng, which was written in Guangxu period of Qing Dynasty, we found another record about the fruits produced in Feicheng: walnuts, pomegranates, ginkgo, grapes, civil fruits and figs are all excellent products, but peaches are the most famous. In recent years, all countries in the east and west have known that there are fat peaches.
This shows that the peaches in Feicheng, at least in the Qing Dynasty, have been exported to earn foreign exchange. This also shows that the quality of fat peaches has been well maintained, promoted and continued in Feicheng for thousands of years.
Feicheng peach has several characteristics. One is big, and the largest single peach weighs 900 grams. Another feature is high sugar content and sweetness. One is tender meat, and the other is a special aroma that other peaches don't have. Very unique. In the mature season of fat peaches, you can smell this fragrance as long as you approach Taoyuan.
Chinese medicine believes that peach trees are full of treasures. As the saying goes, peaches nourish people and apricots hurt people. We often regard peach blossom as a symbol of love and peach as a symbol of longevity. Why? Let's continue to walk into Feicheng and learn more about peaches.
In the northern part of China in early spring, it is an intoxicating scenery for peach blossoms to compete for beauty. However, today's tourists just wander among the flowers. I'm afraid few people know that they have inadvertently continued an ancient festival in China, Daughter's Day.
It turns out that every year when peach blossoms are in full bloom, they are all around the third day of the third lunar month in China. March 3 was once an ancient festival of the Chinese nation, Daughter's Day. Since the Western Zhou Dynasty, it has been a rare festival with strong feminine color in China.
Nowadays, the custom of March 3 has gradually faded out of China people's memory, but it has spawned modern words with playful colors, such as escaping from peach blossom luck and spreading peach blossoms. It is also a kind of inheritance of traditional culture in secular life! After all, when the peach blossoms are in full bloom, it is precisely the time when everything recovers. In the eyes of China people, peach blossom is not only synonymous with women and youth, but also a symbol of spring, which indicates the hope of a year.