1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 23 Matchmaking
"Rather than saying Yongfeng was blessed, it's better to say Jiazhi was just lucky. It rained right after we planted the seeds."

The rain was about to get heavier, so Li Mingkun's words sounded a bit sour.

But Chen Jiazhi didn't care whether he was sore or not, and ran towards the field. Yi Dinggan shouted from behind: "Jiazhi, where are you going?"

"Build a small shed."

Then a group of people went over to watch the fun. When Chen Jiazhi saw them coming, he simply asked them to help pull the film rope.

I've smoked his cigarette, so I can lend him a hand.

The main reason is that the soil was watered in the evening and then washed away by the rain, which made the soil hardened and difficult for the plants to take root and sprout.

When the rain got heavier, the film had already been put up, and the women saw them running around and urged them to take a bath.

Yi Dinggan yelled, "Let's go to the bathroom and compare sizes. I don't need to tell you why anyone didn't go."

"Bah, shameless thing~"

Yi Dinggan went first with the bucket.

Chen Jiazhi was naturally not afraid. He had enough money, so he went to take a shower.

The others hesitated but had no choice but to follow, otherwise they would not be able to hold their heads up in front of the women at home.

...

The rain continued for a long time and only stopped after dawn. Everyone said that the scholar was lucky, and the sun came out again.

Frightened, Chen Jiazhi quickly went to peel off the film.

The small arch shed only needs to shelter from rain and does not need to be kept warm when the weather is fine. However, the price is that sometimes you need to use a dung scoop to add water and moisture.

At this time, Chen Jiazhi missed micro-spraying and drip irrigation facilities very much.

When you have money, you not only need to expand the scale, but also configure various machinery and facilities.

Two days later, the choy sum and choy sum had sprouted successfully, and Chen Jiazhi shifted his management focus back to cowpeas, green beans, loofahs and bitter melons.

Judging from the growth of the plants, they have basically recovered from the early rainy weather, but the vines are a little too long, which will affect the yield.

We can only strengthen management, remove side buds, top and pinch the tips, and at the same time spray a little paclobutrazol to control growth.

He also confirmed from Hong Zhong that there is currently no technology to control the growth of flowers using paclobutrazol, so Chen Jiazhiye only dared to give it a try for fear of problems.

It turned out that he was worrying too much, and the effect of controlling the growth was quite good.

The only regret is that the rain has come again. In fact, he should feel fortunate because the rain only fell after he completed key management measures.

The luck is not bad.

After the rain, the weeds grew very lushly. There was no other way but to pull them out manually. Fortunately, the area was not large, and I didn't have to sell vegetables during this period, so I could concentrate on field management.

But not harvesting vegetables means no income, which is torment for all vegetable farmers.

But their generation is like weeds in the cracks of rocks. With a little sunshine and rain, they can grow tenaciously and survive.

Chen Jiazhi was better off than the others, but he went out to buy some fertilizer to topdress the cabbage, and he also paid for the gang's cigarettes.

At first, people felt a little uncomfortable smoking his cigarettes, but now they gather at the steps at the door on time every night.

"Damn it, we're finally seeing the light of day. It won't be long before the vines can be picked."

Qi Yongfeng almost expressed what everyone was thinking. During this period, everyone's only wish was to be able to smoke Xiucai's cigarettes at night.

Guo Mancang: "Yongfeng, the growth of your and Jiazhi's vine vegetables is a little slow, but the growth is really good. The leaves are not affected at all. Ours is a little fuzzy due to the small arch shed, and there are also diseases and pests, but fortunately we can harvest it soon."

Li Mingkun: "Let's not talk about anything else, Jiazhi's luck has been amazing lately. The loofah and cowpea have also recovered. Jiazhi, did you step in dog shit somewhere? Why is your luck so good?"

Cabbage grows very fast when it rains, but it is prone to disease and insects if it is exposed to high temperature and high humidity conditions for a long time.

But the variety of water spinach that Chen Jiazhi bought was different. Daguqing is a local variety in Huacheng, and it is a seed selected and bred by farmers themselves for generations.

It has strong adaptability and good taste.

However, compared with commercial water spinach seeds, the growth of large-bone green water spinach is slightly slower, at least 25 to 30 days.

Li Mingkun, Guo Mancang, and even Yi Dinggan all use commercial seeds that can be harvested in just 20 days, resulting in lower yields and less resistance to stress. Chen Jiazhi also has a small shed for shelter from the rain; if it gets too much, he covers it with film, and he maintains meticulous daily management.

Therefore, his dishes look the best.

The next one was Qi Yongfeng, who finally gritted his teeth and built a small arch shed, but he had no money to buy seeds, so he borrowed seeds from Chen Jiazhi.

Chen Jiazhi exhaled a cloud of smoke. "You only think I'm lucky, but you don't see how much effort I put in. I bought the most expensive seeds and disinfected them with quicklime. Did you take timely measures to prevent pests and diseases? Did you apply enough base fertilizer? Did you apply topdressing?"

As soon as it started raining, Li Xiu and I would get up in the middle of the night and start covering the film. As soon as the rain stopped, we would start removing the film. I would say, "Brother Yi, when I told you to remove the film, you took more than half an hour to do it..."

They say 30% depends on the variety and 70% depends on management, but it turns out that neither your seeds nor management can compare to mine."

Yi Dinggan was called out by Chen Jiazhi, but he didn't dare to refute. He was more than half an hour late in removing the film, which caused a lot of his water spinach leaves to become sticky.

Chen Jiazhi paused and said, "You can't always say that I'm lucky. It's not that hard to admit that my skills are better than yours. Then I can teach you a few more moves in the future."

The various varieties of water spinach were proposed by Chen Jiazhi.

Although water spinach is cheap, its advantage is that it can be prepared quickly and is relatively more resistant to high temperature and high humidity environments, which can ensure the lower limit.

Therefore, several vegetable farmers planted it.

Qi Yongfeng said, "Jiazhi, when you harvest the vine vegetables, I can go and help you. You can teach me a few more tricks in the future, and I can even become your apprentice."

"I'm fine with teaching you, but I don't need to become your disciple. It's still early to harvest the crops." Chen Jiazhi said with a smile, "I'm going to be a matchmaker tomorrow."

"Matchmaking? Matchmaking for whom?"

When they heard about matchmaking, everyone became interested and kept asking about it, but Chen Jiazhi kept them in suspense and asked them to come to the field at around 5 or 6 tomorrow afternoon, hoping that they could help.

Several people were tickled by him.

After Li Mingkun returned to the house, he continued to ask Bai Yan, "Do you know which girl this is? If Junwa doesn't want to study anymore, shouldn't he get married soon?"

Bai Yan cursed, "You want to die? Junwa hasn't even graduated from elementary school yet."

the next day,
God was kind to Chen Jiazhi and it was a sunny day. The green vines and cabbage were very pleasing to the eye.

It looks like a good harvest at first glance.

This is his normal level.

He and Li Xiu spent the whole morning thinning out the vegetable seedlings in the vegetable field. Because they were sowing in batches, they also thinned out the seedlings one batch at a time for a long time.

At noon, Li Mingkun came again and curiously asked Li Xiu about the matchmaking. Li Xiu was not capable of that, as she was pregnant, so why would she be a matchmaker for others?

"Jiazhi said so."

After hearing this, Chen Jiazhi directly retorted: "I told you to come this afternoon. How can you possibly see it now if you come now?"

Li Xiu looked at him in surprise: "When did you start to act as a matchmaker? How come I didn't know?"

Chen Jiazhi took out a red plastic rope from the corner, about 10cm long, and said, "This is the gift the matchmaker gives to the newlyweds."

The red rope was made because it had been raining for several days and Li Xiu said she was bored, so Chen Jiazhi bought a roll of rope and asked Li Xiu to cut and tear it into thin pieces.

Li Xiu didn't understand why either.

It was not until five o'clock in the afternoon that everyone started to work. Chen Jiazhi and Li Xiu came to the loofah field with ropes, followed by a group of big men.

Li Mingkun looked around and said dissatisfiedly, "Scholar, it's so hot and there's not a soul around, and you're here to act as a matchmaker?"

Chen Jiazhi nodded and said, "Right here, it will start soon."

The crowd looked around again in disbelief and started cursing in dissatisfaction.

"Fuck, you're kidding me."

"Scholar, I thought you had matured, but why are you still playing such tricks on me?"

"I'm not kidding." Chen Jiazhi took two steps in the ridge of the loofah field and picked a male flower without a small loofah.

"I'm a matchmaker for Luffa, not for anyone else. It's you who have improper thoughts."

(End of this chapter)