1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 329 Grafting
"President Ye, I'll definitely contact you as soon as I need a loan!"

"Alright, Mr. Chen, I'll remember that. If you ever need a loan, just come to me!"

"Alright, President Ye, take care!"

Before getting into the car, Ye Wenhua, the branch manager of the Agricultural Bank of China, took one last regretful look at the bustling scene in the market.

Unfortunately, no matter how much we pleaded, the loan simply wouldn't be issued.

After the car left, Chen Jiazhi breathed a sigh of relief. The bank's kindness was too much; they were practically threatening him with a knife to get a loan.

After seeing the person off, Chen Jiazhi continued walking along the road.

The afternoon in August was sweltering, but the Friendship Agricultural Supplies store under the big tree was a bit cooler and bustling with activity.

Hong Zhong was not there; the person in charge of receiving customers was Xiao He, the shop assistant he had hired to look after the store.

Chen Jiazhi stood under a tree outside the door and smoked a cigarette before coming in after Xiao He finished his work.

"Xiao He, business has been good lately."

"Hehe, not bad." Xiao He was still writing the invoices when he laughed, "The supplies for the small greenhouses have been selling quite well these past two months. Every now and then, vegetable farmers come to inquire about them."

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Chen Jiazhi inquired about Hong Zhong and learned that he was still in the north and couldn't return for the time being. He then left a note asking Hong Zhong to call him back as soon as possible.

After chatting for a while about the seed sales, Chen Jiazhi went to the seedling shed in the vegetable market.

I didn't ride a bicycle, but after walking a few steps, sweat started pouring down my face.

The ventilation shafts on both sides of the seedling shed were opened, and a shade net was placed on top to cool it down while working, but the temperature inside the shed was still frighteningly high.

Chen Jiazhi hurried past the many seedlings of Chinese cabbage, Shanghai bok choy, and other vegetables, and led Yi Dinggan and Fang Xuelin, the plant protection worker who managed the seedling shed, to the trays where loofah and bitter gourd seedlings were placed.

Fang Xuelin is a newly recruited employee, in his thirties, with a vocational school diploma in plant protection.

The loofah and bitter melon were seeds that Chen Jiazhi saved last year.

Fang Xuelin explained: "Mr. Chen, there are a total of 70 trays of loofah, each with 72 holes, and the germination rate is about 90%, which is about 4500 seedlings."
There are 52 trays of bitter gourd, each with 72 holes, and the germination rate is about 90%, with about 3350 seedlings.

In addition, there are still about one or two pounds of seeds left from both the loofah and bitter melon.

The most numerous loofah seedlings could only be planted on 3 mu (approximately 0.2 hectares) and bitter gourd seedlings on 2 mu (approximately 0.3 hectares). Chen Jiazhi stared at the seedlings for a moment, then asked, "Old Fang, do you know how to graft seedlings?"

Grafting is widely recognized as having a long history, but its exact origins and place remain unclear.

However, the widespread application of grafting technology in vegetable production began in Japan and Korea in the 1920s.

my country first introduced grafting technology into winter greenhouse watermelon production in the 70s.

With the development of greenhouse cucumber cultivation in northern regions in the 80s, grafting gradually became popular in vegetable production.

It is currently considered a relatively cutting-edge technology.

Fang Xinglin noticed the boss's gaze and asked in surprise, "Could it be that the boss wants to try grafting loofah and bitter melon?"

"I have this idea."

Chen Jiazhi wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "If the seedling farm wants to grow and expand, grafting is an essential skill. We also need to experiment with different rootstock and scion combinations for various cultivation conditions, and train enough grafters. These are all things you need to do."

Fang Xinglin nodded and said, "Okay, I also know how to graft. I'll train a few grafters using loofah and bitter gourd first."

Chen Jiazhi pondered for a moment and said, "We can do several combinations for comparison: straight seedlings, loofah grafted with bitter gourd, bitter gourd grafted with loofah, and two common varieties on the market. Finally, we can see which one works best. Just give me the budget."

"clear."

Yi Dinggan is in charge of the daily production of seedlings such as Chinese cabbage at the seedling nursery, while Chen Jiazhi is in charge of scientific research and breeding.

It's too early to talk about breeding now, but he knows how to graft and cultivate seedlings. Although he's not an expert, farmers across the country mainly cultivate their own seedlings now.

Even in Shandong, he estimated that it was only just beginning, and intensive seedling farms were nowhere to be seen.

Although he has never eaten pork, he has at least seen or been exposed to it. With the expansion of vegetable planting, the demand for professional seedling cultivation in China will only increase in the next few years.

Setting up a seedling nursery now is perfectly timed.

In the Pearl River Delta region, including Guangzhou, the most marketable seedlings are bitter gourd, loofah, winter melon, cantaloupe, watermelon, and so on.

Among them, Chen Jiazhi at least knew that bitter gourd and winter melon could have their yield and resistance increased through grafting.

Chen Jiazhi was quite satisfied with Fang Xinglin's attitude, which showed the demeanor of a scientific researcher.

After exchanging words, the two took the opportunity to graft the bitter gourd with a razor blade. Their movements were slow and gentle, and they even used cotton rope to secure it at the end.

Yi Dinggan, watching from the side, complained, "President Chen, this grafting is too slow. At this rate, how much would each seedling cost?"

Chen Jiazhi glanced at him and said, "Practice makes perfect, you know? At first, you might only be able to graft a few hundred plants a day, but once you get skilled, you can graft tens of thousands of plants a day."

Fang Xinglin grafted much faster than Chen Jiazhi, but he was still secretly astonished to hear that the boss was making such exaggerated claims.

"Hey, neither of you believe me, right?"

"Mr. Chen, grafting tens of thousands of plants a day is too difficult. Many beginners are not even familiar with fixing the interface, let alone the survival rate requirements."

The fact that each person could graft tens of thousands of plants a day was the general level of top grafting teams in later generations, with a survival rate of up to 99%, which is indeed too incredible to say now.

Holding the cotton rope in his hand, Chen Jiazhi said, "I'll have Youyi Agricultural Supplies try to find someone to produce grafting clips. That should improve efficiency a lot."

Yi Dinggan muttered, "Cost?" Chen Jiazhi glared and said, "It can be recycled and reused, so the cost won't be much higher."

"Oh, I just don't understand," Yi Dinggan scratched his head and said, "What are the benefits of grafting?"

Chen Jiazhi laughed and said, "Old Fang, why don't you talk to him about it?"

Yi Dinggan then said, "Why don't we go outside and talk about it? It's too hot in this shed!"

The three of them stepped out of the seedling shed and immediately felt the cool air. They sat down under the eaves of a roadside structure that provided shade.

Chen Jiazhi offered cigarettes to the two men, and after they lit them, Fang Xinglin said, "For example, when grafting bitter gourd, we use loofah as rootstock. By utilizing the growth of loofah, the grafted bitter gourd grows stronger, reduces the occurrence of pests and diseases, and becomes more adaptable to climate and soil, and more resistant to moisture. Even continuous rain will not affect its growth."

He paused for a moment, and Yi Dinggan exclaimed in surprise, "Is it really that amazing?"

"I haven't finished yet," Fang Xinglin continued, "Moreover, the bitter melons produced have the tender and delicate flesh of loofah, a regular shape, can be harvested earlier, and have a longer production period than ordinary bitter melons."

"Tch!" Yi Dinggan said, a cigarette dangling from his lips. "Old Fang, I've got it. I'll wait and see if this batch of grafted loofah and bitter melon is as amazing as you say!"

Fang Xinglin said with a wry smile, "This is only the first year of the experiment, how can we expect to see results so quickly?"

"Old Fang, don't worry about it. It's just a few acres of land anyway, treat it as an experiment."

Chen Jiazhi stood up. The vegetable market was a scene of abundant harvest. After the rain stopped a few days ago, the price of vegetables had risen again.

"As long as Director Yi can maintain a stable output, the expenses of the seedling farm are just a piece of cake."

Yi Dinggan chuckled; he liked hearing that.

...

After waiting for two days, Chen Jiazhi finally received a reply from Hong Zhong.

When he returned the call, Hong Zhong was still in Beijing, having just finished meeting with several foreign seed companies.

"Mr. Chen, these foreign seeds are damn expensive! One tomato seed costs a dollar!"

Chen Jiazhi asked, "Didn't you say you run an agricultural supply store and could help with promotion?"

“I told them.” Hong Zhong smiled. “Fortunately, I’ve secured deals with two companies and obtained agency status. I can get a batch of cucumber, tomato, and eggplant seeds at a discounted price.”

Chen Jiazhi inquired further and learned that they were all seed companies from the Netherlands, South Korea, and the United States.

"Isn't there a Japanese company called Sakata?"

“No,” Hong Zhong said. “I’ve asked many people and searched many places, but I haven’t found any information about Sakata Company.”

“Perhaps they haven’t established a company in China yet,” Chen Jiazhi pondered. “You might still need to import it from Japan.”

"Okay, I'll send Abiao. It should be fine."

"Hmm~"

Sakata's 'Excellent' broccoli seeds and Sakata 316 tomatoes are varieties that Chen Jiazhi has worked with before, and he also heard that carrot seeds are very famous.

Despite the deep-seated hatred towards the Japanese, China will eventually have to fully liberalize its seed industry restrictions in order to join the WTO.

If possible, he would naturally like to have Friendship Agricultural Materials introduce some excellent varieties, accumulate funds and technology as soon as possible, and perhaps make some achievements in research and development sooner.

Then, Chen Jiazhi mentioned the Tianjin Cucumber Research Institute to Hong Zhong, asking him to make a trip there and buy some Jin Chun and Jin Yan series cucumber seeds.

Imported seeds are not a panacea.

For example, some tomato varieties are not resistant to bacterial wilt of tomatoes. Therefore, when raising seedlings, it is necessary to use domestically selected bacterial wilt-resistant tomato varieties as rootstocks and imported varieties as scions for grafting.

Only in this way can grafting combinations that are highly resistant to bacterial wilt, have excellent overall traits, and are suitable for open field or greenhouse cultivation in various regions be selected.

This also requires a large number of grafting combination experiments to continuously optimize and improve the combinations.

Then, grafting is used to produce seedlings, which are then sold to vegetable farmers.

In fact, the technical content is not low, and it requires sustained patience. A single combination test takes about half a year.

This is also where the value of a seedling nursery lies.

At the same time, the more germplasm resources the seedling farm possesses, the better.

In addition to importing from other places, local resources are also needed.

After chatting with Hong Zhong about finding a factory to produce grafting clips, Chen Jiazhi hung up the phone and picked up an issue of "Seed World" on the table to start flipping through it again.

There is an article about greenhouse cucumber seedling cultivation and grafting techniques, attributed to the Seed Company of Zouping County, Shandong Province.

The rootstock for its cucumber grafting is Yunnan black-seeded pumpkin. Black-seeded pumpkin is immune to cucumber wilt disease and has strong grafting affinity and symbiotic affinity, so it is suitable as a rootstock.

This led him to think of the bitter gourd and loofah being grafted in the seedling shed, and this was his first attempt at grafting.

But that's far from enough. In addition to introducing superior varieties, nurseries also need various resources suitable for rootstock.

This can be done by starting with existing varieties, but there are also many examples in the breeding community of selecting excellent rootstocks from wild resources.

In short, maintaining a seedling nursery is a challenging and long-term endeavor.

(End of this chapter)