Tulips are supposed to wait for spring. In Kashmir, they usually do. But this winter, inside a carefully controlled research space at SKUAST's Shalimar campus, the flowers didn't follow the calendar.
According to The New Indian Express, for the first time in the Valley, scientists have successfully induced tulips to bloom in December, months ahead of their natural season, using advanced horticultural methods that could reshape Kashmir's floriculture economy.
The breakthrough was achieved by researchers at the Sher-i-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST-K), who managed to trigger flowering through a process known as bulb programming and forcing, techniques widely used in countries like the Netherlands but never before implemented in Kashmir at this level.
Prof. Imtiyaz Nazki, Head of SKUAST's Floriculture Department, said the experiment was designed as an early trial to see whether locally grown tulip bulbs could be manipulated for off-season flowering.
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