Alpine Orchard - Chapter 168

[Chapter 168 Raising Seedlings]

nine is counted from the day of the winter solstice, and every nine days is a unit, also called ‘winter nine nine’.

This is a folk method to calculate the date of cold weather and warm spring.

Generally speaking, March and April are the coldest. When it counts to nine, ninety-nine and eighty-one days, it is the time when the spring birthday is warm.

Ye Mo said before that the seedlings should be raised after counting nine, but it doesn’t really have to wait after eighty-one days, but after nine, depending on the temperature. As long as the temperature is suitable, the seedlings will start to grow.

After New Year’s Day.

The local temperature has a large temperature difference between day and night.

In the early 20s during the day, the lowest temperature at night… 3 degrees Celsius.

The greenhouse for raising seedlings has been set up, and the nutrient soil is also installed in the seedling raising trays. However, the temperature at night has been too low recently, and this temperature will continue for a while…

Watermelons are not resistant to low temperatures. Even grafted watermelon seedlings, if the temperature is too low at night, it is easy to cause the death of melon seedlings. This temperature, usually 7 degrees Celsius as the critical point. Of course, it also depends on the choice of rootstock and the variety of watermelon.

Later, Ye Mo carried all the fertilizer to the melon field, and used the excavator’s claws to clean up the weed roots in the soil.

Time flies by, and it’s the tenth day of January.

Ye Mo took out the plants that had been sun-dried in advance, and began to soak… This time, he soaked directly in Lingquan without adding water. Then start to germinate… to

germinate, and heat it with water vapor.

After the seeds germinate, they are planted one by one in the seedling tray.

Germination is carried out in batches, about 4400 watermelon seedlings and 2000 muskmelon seedlings per day.

For watermelon and cantaloupe, the rootstocks Ye Mo chooses are gourds, which are annual climbing herbs of the family Cucurbitaceae, with a well-developed root system.

The seeds are placed in the seedling tray, and then the temperature of the greenhouse is controlled.

As the seedlings of the rootstock, the seedlings will be planted two or three days later.

In about a week, the grafting work began.

Although grafting watermelon seedlings is very simple, it is a delicate job. A skilled person can graft more than two thousand plants a day.

Ye Mo invited Uncle Li to come over to help guide him for a day, his parents, second uncle, third uncle, Tang Xun and his family all came to help. Xiaomian’s eldest lady and uncle also came to help.

On the first day, the pace was very slow. There were more than 6,000 seedlings and 20 people, and they almost didn’t finish.

The next day, the speed of grafting melon seedlings was fast.

Ye Mo and Lin Xiaomian are busy with germination and planting every day…

the work of grafting is done for a while in the afternoon.

The work of grafting seedlings has become more and more proficient with time.

The last batch of seeds also went down into the seedling trays in the greenhouse.

According to Ye Mo’s statistics, 44,000 watermelons were purchased for planting.

Anyone who has bought a large amount of seeds should know that when buying seeds, usually they will only give more, not less. Unless you meet those unscrupulous merchants…

the actual watermelon seeds are more than 50,000. Some seeds failed to germinate… about 52,000 seeds were planted.

The same is true for cantaloupe. Ye Mo received about 26,000 cantaloupe seeds, and planted about 25,000 after germination.

There are 5,000 seeds planted in netted melon, and 5,500 seeds actually arrived.

Ye Mo studied the density of the netted melons, and planted an additional 5,000 seeds… 11,000 seeds actually.

For watermelon seeds, melon seeds, etc., the germination rate is usually required to be above 85%. After soaking in Lingquan, the germination rate is particularly high.

The last batch of seeds is lowered into the seedling tray.

Lin Xiaomian has been squatting for a long time, her legs are numb, she stood up and stretched her legs, “My legs feel like they are going to be useless.”

“I let you sit on a stool, but you don’t want to.” Ye Mo walked over , holding her up.

“It’s too slow to load and unload seeds on a stool.” Lin Xiaomian worked faster, much faster than Ye Mo.

Tang Xun and his wife, Chen Chen and Ye Ran also helped plant the seeds together.

Chen Chen and Ye Ran must have confirmed their relationship.

Ye Mo went to Ye Ran’s side: “Are you finished?”

“Soon.”

“Where are you?” Ye Mo looked at Tang Xun and Wang Yue and asked.

“There are still a few hundred grains left.” Ye Mo looked at the time, and it was past four o’clock, and said, “Would you like to eat crayfish tonight, I’ll try to get two cages.”

“Eat.” Tang Xun said with a smile: ” Catch more.”

The temperature during the day can still exceed 20 degrees Celsius, and there are still some crayfish in the reservoir.

Ye Mo and Lin Xiaomian left the greenhouse, came to the reservoir, used lobster feed as bait, and threw three large cages down.

Ye Mo’s mother, second aunt, third aunt, and Tang Xun’s mother rode by the reservoir: “We’re going back to cook. Xiao Mian, are your parents coming over later?”

“Just started for a while.” Lin Xiaomian said .

“Do your parents eat mutton?” Mother Ye said, “I’ll go to the mountains to buy a sheep, and I’ll eat mutton tomorrow.”

“My parents don’t have any taboos,” Lin Xiaomian said.

Mother Ye smiled and nodded: “We’re going back to cook.”

Xiao Mian’s parents’ project is over again, so there’s nothing to do.

Country plasterers, pretty much the same. A single day’s salary looks good, but it’s all about working for a while and taking a break.

More than a dozen people in the nursery shed have already completed today’s grafting work and are building a small shed on the open space next to it.

After five days, the grafted seedlings are confirmed to have survived… Then the grafting clips are removed, and the seedlings are moved to a small shed for the hardening process. Only after hardening can the seedlings be planted.

“Have all the seeds been planted?”

“There are also rootstock seedlings…” Ye Mo said.

Father Ye nodded: “Is my father-in-law here?”

“On the way.” Ye Mo said.

“Go catch some lobsters and make them to eat at night.”

“The ground cage has been placed.” Ye Mo said, and went to help spread the film.

It’s January 20th.

The earliest batch of seedlings will be moved to the small shed in two or three days… By the end of the month, they will be able to be customized.

Customization at the end of the month is still very risky.

According to their local weather, the best time for planting is next month… that is, after April 9th.

High risk has high return.

Watermelons, especially early-ripening melons, ripen a few days earlier, and sometimes… the price can be a few dollars.

Their early-ripening watermelons are mainly in Yunnan, and the prices of freshly ripened watermelons are particularly expensive. After that, it will be one price per day.

Ye Mo checked the agricultural network, and the watermelon planting area this year is about the same as last year. The reason is that the basic farmland in many places can only grow food.

The fruit industry develops towards the mountainous areas.

The policy is definitely good, but some people are happy and some are worried.

Fruit farmers in the mountains like them are very happy.

After the small shed was built, Ye Mo went into the seedling shed and looked at the melon seedlings that had been grafted before.

The survival rate of the grafted melon seedlings is almost 100%. Anyway, after looking around, no dead melon seedlings were found.

After these melon seedlings were grafted, Ye Mo would come over to spray the spiritual spring at night, and they all grew very well.

Leaving the nursery shed, Ye Mo went to the greenhouse.

The 80 watermelons in the greenhouse were planted on the 20th of last month, and it has been a month now.

The temperature in the greenhouse is high, and the influence of the low temperature at night is very small.

Ye Mo pushed a cart, and there was a water tank on the cart.

The water tank has a capacity of 220 liters. Look around inside…

Dad and the others packed up their things and prepared to go back.

Ye Ran, Lin Xiaomian and the other women were on the side of the road, they didn’t know what to talk about, they couldn’t stop laughing.

Tang Xun and Chen Chen crossed their shoulders and walked towards the reservoir…

Ye Mo took out a bucket of Lingquan from the space, 45 liters, poured it directly into the water tank of the cart, and then pushed the cart outside to pick up the water , Stir it after filling it with water, push it into the greenhouse, and water the melon seedlings.

The vines of these melon seedlings are more than two meters long.

One plant, leaves three vines.

One main vine that developed first, and two secondary vines.

These melon vines grow very fast, and can grow more than ten centimeters every day.

After pouring water, Ye Mo ran along the melon vine.

Now the melon vine is very thick, the root is as thick as a little finger.

“Why don’t you go back?” Lin Xiaomian and the others walked over and asked.

“Immediately.” Ye Mo said: “Weeds are growing again in the shed, I have to come over tomorrow to clean up the weeds.”

(End of this chapter)