Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1951: Owe Saplings
"Grandma Liu, you're being a little ambiguous." Zhou Zhi was very frank: "We are now just working people. Xiao Miao is very capable in her professional field, but she is a little confused in life and lacks courage and professionalism in engineering management. In short, she is just like a girl who has just entered college."

"Since the country has entrusted this laboratory to Clover Group, I must be responsible for it, so I have to take special care of Xiao Miao."

"Well, it's better to be special. You have to take good care of this girl. She is not only the treasure of your school, but also the treasure of the country."

"I know this well."

"This year is a bumper year." Liu Liangzhen said with a smile: "Judging from the results, we came to Liangshan Prefecture to develop the pomegranate and cherry industries. This is the right path. Elbow, do you know how high the success rate of our first batch of saplings after intensive training is?"

"I don't know, but I think most of the seedlings in the greenhouse are alive."

The so-called intensive training is that after the seedlings are cultivated in the laboratory, they are moved into a nutrient soil base dish made of volcanic rocks, coconut coir, rice husk carbon, and other nutrients in a strict proportion. After they grow to a height of more than ten centimeters, they are moved into a greenhouse for cultivation in an environment closer to the natural environment, so that the seedlings can grow stronger.

Now these saplings have grown quite healthy and stable, and the greenhouse has started to be ventilated. Apart from blocking excessive rain and snow, other growth conditions are almost the same as those in the wild.

"The survival rate reached 98 percent, with only four plants eliminated. Moreover, both the growth rate and branching speed are much stronger than those in the north."

"This is really great news!" Zhou Zhi was very happy to hear that the Moroccan pomegranates were growing so vigorously at the base. "Why is Grandma Liu testing me on this today? Eh? Is it time to transplant them from the greenhouse to the wild?"

"Hahaha, your cleverness is well worth it." Liu Liangzhen was happy: "Yes, the intensive training has been completed. Today we will transplant the saplings to the orchard."

"We have eighty plants." Zhou Zhi was so happy that his back teeth popped out: "Let's make it clear first, we'll distribute them in proportion."

"Don't worry about it. First, complete the preliminary training under our guidance, and then you can start after you pass the course." Liu Liangzhen said, "Let's go and see how you have learned recently."

There are actually some techniques for transplanting pomegranate trees. Theoretically, mature pomegranate seedlings can be transplanted all year round, but from a scientific planting perspective, it is necessary to adapt to the site and select the best transplanting time based on the local climate. Specifically, it should be between germination and the growth of large leaves.

However, Liu Liangzhen combined local climate records and Huili pomegranate management experience and found that this problem does not exist in Liangshan Prefecture. It is mainly due to sufficient sunshine and relatively high temperatures that the growth and photosynthesis of pomegranate trees can reach the optimal state. All that is needed is proper management at night when the temperature is lower.

The so-called night management is also simple, and basic insulation measures such as covering with grass and film are enough.

By this time, the transplant survival rate is basically 100%.

When we arrived at the orchard that had been opened up for the saplings at the base, we saw that round pits had been dug by the study team sent by Lianhe Township. Lao Chi Ri and Tu Liangzhi were organizing everyone to pour new soil into the pits, which was a mixture of leaf mold, original soil and river sand, and added with an appropriate amount of decomposed organic fertilizer.

This piece of land is sunny, sheltered from the wind, and has a slightly high slope. Zhou Zhi stepped on it and found that after two seasons of potato planting in half a year and plowing the land as green manure, plus the addition of decomposed organic fertilizer, the soil has now become loose, fertile, and well-drained.

The remaining work is to properly cut and trim the pomegranate seedlings with soil balls on the roots, plant them in the soil pits, water them thoroughly, and wait until the spores begin to grow, then you can plant the seedlings to make them grow quickly. "Uncle Tu, have you learned it?" Zhou Zhi asked, "Aunt Jike doesn't need to learn, but you are different. Have you forgotten all the farming tricks?"

"That's better than you!" Tu Liangzhi said in a loud voice, "Except that I'm not as smart as your kid in mixing pesticides and need to follow the watch, I'm better than you in everything else!"

Indeed, at this stage, it is already the simplest farming method. However, when summer comes, timely pruning is still required to improve ventilation and light conditions and reduce the occurrence of diseases and pests.

The main diseases are white rot, black pox, and anthracnose. Therefore, the pomegranate tree needs to be sprayed with 200 times diluted Bordeaux liquid every half a month or so. If the disease is serious, it is also necessary to spray dilute fungicides such as thiophanate-methyl, mancozeb, and carbendazim.

It’s actually not that complicated.

The pruned branches can also be used for cuttings and seedlings. Although this is the most energy-consuming method of propagation, it also has the most obvious results and is very suitable for the initial propagation work in the orchard.

When there are more saplings that can be propagated by taking branches in the future, we can use relatively low-tech propagation methods such as high-altitude layering and long-branch cuttings.

After watering, Lao Chi Ri directed everyone to cover half of the pomegranate tree with grass and the other half with film. This process is called moisture conservation, which means maintaining the temperature and humidity in the soil to make it most suitable for plant growth. It is divided into two methods and is also for comparative experiments. It is hoped that grass can replace film in the future to reduce the production costs of fruit farmers.

Liu Liangzhen was very satisfied with the villagers' tree planting skills. She said: "Everyone has combined their original production experience with the new knowledge they have learned. Now it seems that the results are very good. The remaining 80 new seedlings can be distributed to the township for planting in this way."

"Yeah!" Tu Ziri and others cheered in the way that Zhou Zhi and other young people were used to. After working hard for several months, they finally saw the results.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

The eighty saplings were also divided up, with half belonging to the collective orchard, and the remaining forty being given priority to agricultural technicians who had come to learn the technology, with each family being able to get five trees.

Compared with planting other trees, the agricultural technicians this time can be said to have put in a lot of effort, and they also gave up going to the construction site to "earn work points". Although Zhouzhi gave the trainees some subsidies, they still lost a lot of short-term benefits.

So Zhou Zhi was not worried at all that they would not cherish these seedlings.

Of course, there are definitely more than just these eight households in the village who have built pig pens and renovated bathrooms, so the current situation is that the village owes a lot of fruit tree seedlings to those families who have renovated their bathrooms.

Tu Liangzhi never figured out how Zhou Zhi pulled off this trick. Renovating the bathrooms and promoting fruit tree planting were not easy tasks, and he had already prepared for a tough battle. But now, villagers often came to the grain station to ask, "Hey! When will the township send us the fruit tree seedlings?"

Human hearts are like this. If I say I'm giving it to you as a gift, you might still make excuses and not be willing to accept it. But if I owe you something, then I absolutely won't accept it and you must get it back no matter what.

Lao Chi Ri expressed his admiration for Zhou Zhi's method of replacing one thing with another. If this kid was not a Han kid, he would be a good material to inherit his mantle. He understands human nature so well!
Therefore, not only did he not dissuade them, he even secretly fanned the flames.