It’s winter in Antarctica, but scientists just grew watermelons there

At Vostok Station in Antarctica, July means miserably low temperatures, almost perpetual darkness and all the other inconveniences of an Antarctic winter. But this winter brought Russian scientists living on the station a special treat: watermelons grown there as part of ongoing agricultural experiments.

Russian agricultural researchers say they successfully grew eight watermelons at a station greenhouse as part of a wider initiative to grow plants at Russia’s polar stations. 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, the research station is on bitterly cold terrain 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.