Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1855: Scientific Research and Prosperity

"The seeds of this pomegranate are also soft!" Li Lu started eating and said, "It tastes good, but the sour taste is stronger than that of Moroccan pomegranates."

"We are in Daliangshan, where there is plenty of sunshine and a large temperature difference between day and night. Whether it is Yanyuan apples, Mianning navel oranges, or Puge cherries, the sugar content of fruits is generally higher than outside." Liang Guangping said: "So if this pomegranate is promoted to other places, the sweetness will drop a level..."

After saying that, he shook his head and said, "From the perspective of taste, I think the slightly sour taste is a feature, but it is only suitable for promotion in Liangshan Prefecture. If it is promoted in other places, I am afraid it cannot compete with Moroccan pomegranates."

"Brother Liu, you are thinking too far ahead." Zhou Zhi said with a smile: "With these two varieties now, I estimate that it will take several decades to fully promote them in the Anning River Valley. By that time, new hybrid varieties may have been introduced."

Liang Guangping nodded and said, "That's true. Huili pomegranates are cold-resistant, slightly sour, and not as good looking. Moroccan pomegranates look good and have a pure flavor, but they are very susceptible to frost damage. They can be damaged by temperatures as low as -5 degrees Celsius. There is still a lot of room for improvement for both sides."

"In fact, the reason why the fruit tastes so sour is that Taowazi didn't buy a good pomegranate." Old Chiri said while eating a pomegranate, "We can't choose pomegranates from Liangshan Prefecture that are raw like this. They have to be raw to be delicious."

"Ah? Really?" Although Liu Hongtao was engaged in pomegranate tree farming, he did not know that the pomegranates from Liangshan Prefecture had such characteristics.

"In fact, I like to eat this kind of lychees with a bit of sour taste." Zhou Zhi said he was very satisfied: "The lychees from my hometown also have a bit of sour taste. I think they are better than those in Guangdong."

"Then the real dragon pomelo from your hometown is pure sweet, and you said it tastes better than the sour ones sold outside." Li Lu immediately exposed Zhou Zhi: "Anyway, the ones from your hometown are better, right?"

"That's really delicious." Zhou Zhi said, "Oh, by the way, I have learned the techniques of high-branch layering and tender branch cuttings. Can I promote them in my hometown?"

"Citrus is easier to survive when it is propagated by grafting rootstocks, and it is easier for villagers to master it. In addition, high-branch layering and strip wrapping techniques can also be used. Tender branch propagation is relatively difficult and requires careful management. It is generally used in the early stages of propagation." Liu Hongtao said: "According to your description, the Zhenlong pomelo and lychee in your hometown should have passed the primary promotion stage. With a sufficient scale of mother plants with branches to be taken, there is no need to use tender branch cuttings, which requires higher technical requirements, for propagation."

Cuttings are divided into two types: hard branches and tender branches. Hard branches are two-year-old branches that are more than one meter long. After technical processing, they are planted in the culture soil like planting trees and waited for to grow into small trees.

For softwood cuttings, take one-year-old new branches, cut them into thin strips of 20 to 30 centimeters, as long as there are buds on the branches, then seal the upper end with wax, soak the lower end with growth hormone, and then move them into a small dish of nutrient soil mixed with coconut bran, rice husk carbon, volcanic stone, ecological compound fertilizer, etc. for intensive cultivation, and wait for the roots to grow before transplanting.

During the nursing process, there are special requirements for medicine, water, fertilizer, temperature and humidity. Generally, it has to be carried out in a plastic greenhouse with ideal isolation conditions. Disinfection is required when entering and leaving the greenhouse to avoid bringing in diseases. Various monitoring facilities also need to be complete. In short, it is not a way of expansion that ordinary villagers can afford.

However, this method of propagation also has its biggest advantage, which is that the propagation speed is extremely fast. The five Moroccan pomegranates currently transplanted to the base have controlled their flowering this year, and all the nutrients have been reserved for root consolidation and branch growth. In addition, the climate in Lianhe Township is suitable, so a lot of branches have been obtained during the maintenance work of pruning and height control in autumn.

In the north, these branches would have to be thrown away, because it is impossible to breed new seedlings under the severe winter conditions in the north. However, it is different in Lianhe Township. Even in winter, the temperature is basically above five degrees. With the greenhouse, Liu Liangzhen decided to start trying to expand the propagation in autumn and winter.

A young branch has seven or eight buds, which can be divided into seven or eight cuttings. This time, the five trees have expanded to 340 to 50 cutting pots. Considering that the survival rate is unlikely to be 100%, Liu Liangzhen estimates that she would be satisfied with about 300 seedlings.

Even if there are only 300 seedlings, it is already the size of three family orchards. These orchards will start to contribute branches after two years, and those branches can become thousands of seedlings.

In the future, there will be no need for this extremely costly softwood cutting technology. New varieties can be quickly promoted through high-branch layering, strip wrapping, softwood cutting, grafting and other technical means. Of course, the premise is that local promotion and publicity are effective. After all, grafting to change varieties will cause fruit farmers to have no harvest for two years. It is not easy to ask them to give up their immediate interests for two years.

But by that time, the current contradiction of seed shortage will turn into another kind of trouble.

"We don't have such a problem in Lianhe Township." Old Chi Ri is a bachelor, and he expressed no pressure about Zhou Zhi's concerns: "Anyway, we will plant good pomegranates in the future. We can sell both fruits and seedlings in the future, so there will be no problem with grafting."

"It would be best if we could find some new species that have changed in shape during the grafting process, and obtain a new variety that tastes close to the Moroccan pomegranate and has survival ability close to the Huili pomegranate. That would be perfect," said Li Lu.

"That's your task." Zhou Zhi said, "Fortunately, the income from agricultural technology is good now, and scientific research can make you rich at the same time."

As soon as these words were spoken, Li Lu, Liang Guangping and Liu Hongtao all laughed. China is still a major agricultural country. The annual demand for pesticides, fertilizers, seeds, saplings, foals and calves is endless.

Zhou Zhi knows that in his hometown now, a lychee seedling or a Zhenlong pomelo seedling costs about three to five yuan. In a breeding and multiplication base like Lianhe Township, one acre of land can produce about 10,000 seedlings.

There are two bases, each with an area of ​​3,000 acres. After they are developed, each base will be able to produce 30 million seedlings a year, with an output value of nearly hundreds of millions.

It will take a long time to reach this output, and it may not be possible to reach such an extreme peak. Everything will depend on various factors such as future market demand. But just like the development of Lianhe Township, the future is bright.

Everyone chatted around the fire and felt that the trip was worthwhile.

  Even Old Chi Ri thought that these kids were amazing. He couldn’t quite understand most of the things they discussed, but based on their high self-confidence, it went without saying that they were amazing!

However, this impression did not last long, because at this time Zhou Zhi's mobile phone suddenly rang.

Zhou Zhi's mobile phone number was actually known to only a few people. When Zhou Zhi saw the number, he felt strange. It was Hu Tianyu calling. He picked up the phone and said, "Hey, Tianyu, why did you want to call me? The sun is rising from the west now?"

Now with the convenience of satellite network communications, Clover Company and Zhouzhi both communicate through the super convenient QQ.

The latest feature of QQ allows real-time video calls, but it is only limited to local area networks and satellite networks, and the transmission speed of today's dial-up lines cannot reach that level.

For veteran players like the three little animals, let alone surfing the Internet, even many waves are created by them, so the preferred method of communication is not the phone.

Hu Tianyu's voice changed in a hurry: "Elbow! Our house has been ransacked!"

"What the hell?! What does it mean?!"