1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 300 Holy crap!

There was a lot of traffic in Huacheng in the morning, and some sections of the road were congested.

Sitting in the driver's seat of the Isuzu, Chen Jiazhi felt a sense of superiority, with a wide field of vision, making all the retro cars on the road look small.

From this perspective, light trucks seem to be a level above in terms of safety.

Even if you encounter bandits on the road, the chances of forcing your way through seem to be higher.

He glanced to the side and saw that Li Xiu, who had been traveling all night, was already asleep. In her sleep, Li Xiu exuded an even gentler aura.

After thinking about it for a while, I realized I should buy a car, but driving a light truck would be more reliable for nighttime travel.

The car can be used on important occasions, and Chen Zhengxu can also use it when visiting large hotels and restaurants.

Lost in thought all the way, I finally arrived home.

"Xiu, we're here. Go home and get some sleep."

"Hmm~"

They had already eaten breakfast at the market, and Peng Guozhen had prepared hot water when they got home. After putting the money away and washing up, they finished their day's work and went straight to sleep.

...

The sun is quite strong.

Hong Zhong and Hong Biao ignored them and, wearing straw hats, walked with Yi Dinggan to the fields, where vegetable farmers were bent over harvesting the hearts of the vegetables.

"Director Yi, these cabbages are grown so beautifully."

"It's alright," Yi Dinggan asked. "What does Boss Hong think of his comparison to General Manager Chen?"

"Uh..." Hong Zhong said with a wry smile, "Brother, aren't you deliberately making things difficult for me?"

Yi Ding chuckled dryly, "Haha, it seems I'm still a bit lacking in skill."

Hong Zhong pondered for a moment and said, "Each has its own merits. Manager Yi's classification of dishes by size is better, and such dishes are very popular in Hong Kong."

Yi Ding chuckled and said, "We also have a truckload of bok choy being shipped to Hong Kong this afternoon, about 5 tons. The quantity is a little less, but we can earn about 3,000 yuan more per truckload than if we sold it in Guangzhou."

“Five tons…” Hong Biao murmured, “That’s quite a lot.”

Hong Zhong glared at Hong Biao, meaning that he should stop thinking about smuggling food, as the current vegetable prices in Hong Kong were not particularly worth the risk.

Moreover, given the current size of Jiangxin Market, flooding won't solve much of the sales problem and could even cause serious trouble.

Yi Dinggan was unaware of the two men's involvement in smuggling vegetables and was still worried about the lack of orders for supplies to Hong Kong.

Jiazhi didn't come to the market this morning. He guessed that there were too many vegetables last night, so they didn't sell quickly and he came back late.

This made him a little worried about subsequent sales.

The harvest of this batch of bok choy started yesterday, and we harvested more than ten tons at once. We went to the market last night and got 10 tons, and there are still several tons in the cold storage.

Today is even more remarkable, with even more bok choy reaching harvest standards.

Starting in the morning, he organized more than a hundred vegetable workers to start harvesting. In the afternoon, they continued harvesting under the scorching sun, and the harvested vegetables were immediately put into the cold storage.

It is estimated that at least 20 tons of bok choy will be put into storage throughout the day, with a final 10 tons of water spinach and a dozen or so tons of green peppers.

Based on his planting density of Chinese cabbage, once the water spinach is gone, he will continue to produce at least 30 tons of Chinese cabbage every day.

If the market can only sell 10 tons of choy sum per day, and only 5 tons are supplied to Hong Kong, there is a surplus of 15 tons.

Besides, the other party kept saying that they would send a truckload of bok choy every two days!
I'm really worried!

This year's rain has been a bit uncooperative!

Yi Dinggan looked up and squinted at the sky; it had been sunny for two or three days now.

"What is Director Yi looking at?"

"I think God deserves to be cursed again."

“Uh…” Hong Zhong advised, “Brother, you can’t do that. There are gods watching over us. It’s better to do this kind of thing less often. What if God gets angry one day?”

"I was just afraid he wouldn't get angry. This year's rain has been so infrequent and unpleasant," Yi Dinggan said. "My little greenhouses are all ready, and I have plenty of vegetables. I'm just waiting for a heavy rain so the prices will skyrocket!"

"What if God deliberately makes it sunny every day just because you're complaining about him not sending rain?"

"You...this..."

Yi Ding smacked his lips, feeling that it actually made some sense!
Jiazhi likes to incite them to go against God, and he probably already holds a grudge against them.

There are gods watching over us; we can't discuss this anymore.

"It's almost Dragon Boat Festival, why aren't you going back to attend the gathering? What are you doing wandering around the market?"

Hong Zhong smiled and said, "I was thinking that it's almost Dragon Boat Festival, so I brought some fruit and mooncakes from the market. They've already been placed in General Manager Chen's office. Remember to pick them up after get off work."

"You Cantonese people are so particular."

"Also, it's almost the end of the month, so I thought I'd come and ask if there are any new purchasing needs at the market."

“It’s really quite particular.” Yi Ding chuckled and joked, then added, “We’ll have to wait for Jia Zhi to come to make the purchases. I reckon he’ll be here soon. Let’s go back and wait. It’s so hot and sunny outside.”

The sun is really strong. Ever since it rained a couple of days ago, this awful weather has been unbearably hot.

To protect themselves from the sun, the vegetable workers were mostly covered up, bent over, and sweating profusely, but their hands were still moving quickly.

No one was huddled together; everyone was holding their own vegetable baskets and busy chopping vegetables.

The biggest fear for vegetable pickers is having no vegetables to buy, and what they hate most is having vegetables but the boss preferring to let them rot in the field rather than let them be picked up because they can't sell them for a good price.

But at Jiangxin Market, they only need to consider how to harvest faster and better.

The more you collect, the more you earn.

The market really does give money.

Just as the vegetable workers were focused on harvesting the vegetables, they suddenly heard a loudspeaker announcement coming from the gravel road.

"Iced plum juice! After harvesting the vegetables, everyone should have a glass of plum juice. It's refreshing and cools you down!"

"Iced plum juice~"

At first, many vegetable vendors mistook them for street vendors and didn't even bother to look up. Paying money was one thing, but more importantly, queuing would take too much time.

But when I glanced up occasionally, I realized it was people from the office. Then the team leader called out that after finishing collecting the vegetables, everyone should go have a drink to cool off.

Many people then curiously ran over to drink the homemade plum juice from the cafeteria. After being chilled, they took a sip, and the sour and refreshing taste hit their stuffy bodies.

When Chen Jiazhi came to the market, he heard many vegetable workers praising and talking about it.

"The market is quite thoughtful~" "On such a hot day, having a drink is really refreshing, but you can't drink too much."

"What's wrong? Is your stomach upset?"

"I'm afraid that peeing too much will delay my harvesting of vegetables."

"Hey, you woman, you're so well covered up, no one would recognize you if you peed in the vegetable garden."

"Pah! You fucking idiot!"

Chen Jiazhi couldn't help but shake his head after hearing this.

The women at the market are all excellent at their work, but some of them are particularly bad at making lewd jokes and swearing.

He was originally a very pure person in his previous life, but he was corrupted by spending too much time in the market.

Chen Jiazhi didn't go to the vegetable field to check on the harvest. Instead, he walked straight to the office area and was met by Hong Zhong, Hong Biao, and Yi Dinggan.

After exchanging pleasantries for a while, they learned the situation.

"You've come at the perfect time. We really need to start preparing supplies for the second half of the year. I plan to stock up all at once, so let's take a look together."

Hong Zhong knew immediately that the big order was secured, and said with a smile, "Okay, just tell me what you need, and I'll do my best to find it."

Chen Jiazhi gestured to go to his office, brewed a pot of tea, and then began to discuss the matter.

"The key products are fertilizers and pesticides, both of which are strictly regulated. Do you have a way to get enough stock at once?"

Hong Zhong asked, "Is it okay to use imported ternary compound fertilizer?"

"Is it a 15-15-15 ratio?"

"Yes, it sells quite well in Huacheng, and I can get a sufficient supply of goods."

"Yes, we have experience using balanced compound fertilizers."

Then, while discussing the fertilization plan with Yi Dinggan, Chen Jiazhi picked up a pen and began to make calculations.

The best fertilization plan is to apply nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, molybdenum, boron, and organic fertilizers in a balanced manner according to the soil nutrient conditions of the vegetable field in order to achieve high-yield, high-efficiency, and safe vegetable production.

In recent years, due to the high profitability of vegetable cultivation, people have been using more fertilizer.

However, vegetable production mainly relies on nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers, with less organic fertilizer and micronutrient fertilizer, which limits the increase in vegetable yield and also leads to low quality.

Over time, this has led to a misunderstanding among the public about chemical fertilizers, with many believing that their application reduces the quality of vegetables.

Chen Jiazhi pays great attention to this and spares no effort in applying organic fertilizer, so whether in Dongxiang or Jiangxin vegetable market, the yield and quality of his vegetables are superior.

However, although Jiangxin vegetable market has a higher yield than the average level, it has always lagged behind Dongxiang, especially in terms of bok choy, where the difference can sometimes be several hundred kilograms per mu.

But this batch of bok choy yielded much better results.

Yi Dinggan said, "I estimate that the average yield per mu is at least 1,700 to 1,800 jin, if not 2,000 jin."

This is considered a high yield for Sijiuxin, a significant improvement compared to the previous yield of 1,400 to 1,500 jin per mu.

Chen Jiazhi asked, "What do you think caused such a significant increase in production?"

Yi Dinggan thought for a moment and said, "The base fertilizer is sufficient, especially the organic fertilizer. Fermented manure was applied to the two consecutive crops of vegetables."

"Where's the fertilizer?"

"I added 50 jin of compound fertilizer per mu when applying base fertilizer, and I also applied topdressing fertilizer quite frequently. In short, I have never skimped on fertilizer."

"But its output still can't compare to that of Togo."

"I'm wondering the same thing!"

"I think it might be because too much fertilizer was applied, resulting in too much nutrient surplus in the vegetable garden soil, which is why the yield is not high."

Upon hearing this, Hong Zhong, the fertilizer seller, asked in surprise, "Will the yield of vegetables decrease if too much fertilizer is applied?"

“Of course.” Chen Jiazhi thought for a moment and drew a parabola in his notebook.

"Just like a parabola, when the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content in the soil reaches a certain point, the yield and quality of vegetables reach their highest level, and then begin to decline."

I think this is the situation at Jiangxin vegetable market: too many nutrients, or rather, too much residual potassium fertilizer, are limiting further increases in bok choy yield.

Chen Jiazhi looked at Yi Dinggan and said, "Do you remember what I said before about the importance of a balanced diet?"

"If the nutrients are unbalanced from the beginning, applying balanced fertilization later doesn't actually change the original nutrient content. It's only with time and the application of organic fertilizer that the soil gradually improves, but this process is very slow."

"I understand." Yi Dinggan pondered for a moment and said, "So I need to control the application of potassium fertilizer from now on?"

"Give it a try, I think that's the reason."

In today's Guangzhou, vegetable fields generally have excess soil nutrients, which not only poses environmental risks but also hinders the improvement of yield and quality.

More than half a year has passed, and Chen Jiazhi feels that Jiangxin vegetable market has too much surplus of nutrients, and the previous adjustments have only played a partial role.

Besides management issues, this is probably why Jiangxin Market has always lagged behind Dongxiang Market.

Now that we've found the cause, we can treat it accordingly.

Previous fertilization programs used too much topdressing, so this time the amount of chemical fertilizer will be reduced.

With the pesticides remaining the same and the area being large, insect netting is unnecessary.

Regarding seeds, the Chinese cabbage is still purchased from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, but other seeds such as Shanghai bok choy and romaine lettuce are supplied to Hong Zhong...

In the end, a procurement list worth about 50 yuan was handed over to Hong Zhong, which was much cheaper than Chen Jiazhi had expected.

But Hong Zhong left satisfied.

Chen Jiazhi leaned against the wall, smoking, waving goodbye to Hong Zhong, while also observing the bustling scene outside the cold storage.

"Manager Yi, how many vegetables were put into storage today?"

With a snap, Yi Dinggan slapped his thigh and said with a worried face, "20 tons of bok choy, 10 tons of water spinach, and I estimate there are still more than 15 tons of green peppers. The vegetables in this cold storage are piling up more and more."

"Oh~"

"Thank goodness there's a cold storage facility, otherwise it would be terrible."

"Let's finish installing everything today."

"Hey, we've gone too far with the planting, huh?! What did you just say?!" Yi Dinggan suddenly realized something was wrong.

"We didn't have enough vegetables to sell, so we'll pack them all up tonight," Chen Jiazhi chuckled. "You won't be unable to find a car, will you?"

"I rely on it!"

(End of this chapter)