1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 350 Breaking the rules
"Due to time constraints, the transplanting of vegetable seedlings at Yunling Farm missed the planting season, resulting in a later market launch and impacting yield forecasts."

But many of you here approached me on your own initiative, and I'm sure you've all noticed something special about it.

Grafted seedlings have a longer growth period and a longer harvest period than ordinary seedlings, which is a great advantage in actual production. In addition to higher yields, they also fetch better prices later on.

If the grafted seedlings at Yunling Farm could be transplanted during the normal farming season, what would the current yield be? And how high would the profits be?

After a pause, Chen Jiazhi said in a deep voice, "Take cucumbers as an example. According to our estimates, the yield per mu can be increased by at least 2000 jin!"

As soon as this data was released, gasps of surprise rippled through the conference room. 2000 jin would generate over a thousand yuan more in yield per mu.

"Some people might wonder, where did these two thousand catties come from?"

"Firstly, due to the selection of rootstock, the disease resistance and cold resistance of cucumbers are enhanced. The cucumber rootstock we selected can increase the low temperature tolerance of cucumber roots by 5℃."

Therefore, when the nighttime minimum temperature in Yuanmou recently approached 10℃, the root system of our open-field cucumbers was not affected and was still able to maintain normal growth.

The harvest season has now been extended by more than half a month, and the yield has remained high, and this trend will continue.

Secondly, the cucumber roots' ability to absorb nutrients has also been enhanced, with the number of fruits per plant increasing by about 28% compared to seedlings grown from seed!

The increased cucumber production of 2000 jin was mainly due to these two reasons.

But do grafted seedlings only increase yield?

After pausing again to pique everyone's curiosity, Chen Jiazhi said, "Of course not. Besides increasing production, it can also save costs."

"For example, disease resistance. Because the rootstock is selected to be resistant to soil-borne diseases, grafting can block the spread of pathogens to the scion through the soil, which can reduce the incidence of diseases such as bacterial wilt, Fusarium wilt, and root-knot nematode disease by more than 60%."

This is also a great advantage in the vegetable fields in Yuanmou that have been cultivated for many years, as it can significantly reduce the occurrence of diseases, thereby reducing the amount of pesticides used by at least 40%.

Pesticides and labor also represent a significant cost.

Wang Daxin, sitting in the audience, suddenly realized something; he understood, he understood everything.

He sensed something was wrong with Da Gui's vegetable garden; it turned out they were spraying pesticides.

He hadn't seen Da Gui use any pesticides recently, yet the cucumbers showed no signs of disease, which turned out to be due to the seedlings.

Although the data given by General Manager Chen on stage differed from his observations of Da Gui's production, he believed it without a doubt.

This technology has that effect.

After listening for so long, he only vaguely understood some parts, such as rootstock and scion, so he asked loudly.

Then other farmers followed suit and asked the same question.

Chen Jiazhi raised his hand to quell the crowd. He knew that there must be some farmers in the audience who knew grafting and might even be thinking of taking the opportunity to learn it, but the purpose of this training was to provide instruction.

He had prepared quite a bit for this.

"In grafted plants, the part that is grafted is called the scion, and the part that receives the scion is called the rootstock. Oh, some friends may like to pronounce 'rootstock' as 'zhan mu', which is why they are confused. Actually, it is pronounced 'zhen mu'."

Vegetable grafting mainly utilizes the improvement effect of grafting on vegetable crops, and the core is to achieve complementary advantages through the combination of rootstock and scion.

Grafting can enhance the disease resistance, drought resistance, salt tolerance, and root absorption function of vegetables, thereby achieving the goals of early maturity, increased yield, and increased income.

The vegetables that utilize grafting techniques are mainly melons and solanaceous vegetables, and each type of vegetable has a variety of rootstocks available for grafting.

Different rootstocks have different characteristics.

For example, our cucumbers use Yunnan black-seeded pumpkin as rootstock, which is resistant to wilt and cold temperatures, making it suitable for winter and early vegetable cultivation or overwintering cultivation in Yuanmou.

However, if planting is done in spring or summer, rootstocks that are resistant to wilt and heat should be selected.

If there are many soil nematodes, you should choose rootstocks that are more resistant to nematodes…

Chen Jiazhi stood on the stage, with a clear view of the situation in the conference room. Some people didn't care, but most people listened attentively.

Among the vegetable farmers who came to us, some even brought paper and pen to take notes.

This pleased Chen Jiazhi greatly, and his teacher's spirits returned. After he finished delivering the prepared content, he invited Ji Song to the stage.

They prepared a tray of seedlings and rootstock, demonstrated several grafting methods on-site, and explained how to manage the grafted plants.

At this point, both the farm's vegetable workers and the visiting farmers listened attentively.

This is truly valuable information.

Plug-in, contact joint, splice joint~
It can be used for grafting vegetables or fruit trees from home.

Li Mingkun then came up to share his insights on cucumber cultivation and management, and how to grow them better and achieve higher yields.

These are topics that vegetable farmers are quite interested in, and even though the aroma of meat outside is very strong, many people are still listening attentively.

Li Mingkun also found his rhythm and even started chatting with the vegetable farmers.

During the discussion, some vegetable farmers raised the issue of the high price of grafted seedlings. Li Mingkun explained that the workers are not yet skilled enough, resulting in slow efficiency and low survival rate. He added that once the technical level improves, the price will be significantly reduced.

At the same time, a certain number of free vaccines will still be provided.

Chen Jiazhi stood below the stage, feeling that today's training was very successful. He noticed that several workers were very engaged throughout the training and usually performed well.

These can all be used to cultivate core personnel.

In addition, the farm's technical capabilities were also demonstrated to research groups engaged in breeding studies, who will become potential seedling customers when conditions are right.

There are also several vegetable farmers who have found their own partners. Among these people, there is a possibility that some may become major vegetable farmers or big customers in the future.

After Li Mingkun finished speaking, Chen Jiazhi smiled and nodded at him, then smiled at the researcher from the Vegetable Research Institute of the China Academy of Agricultural Sciences sitting in the first row and said, "Professor Zhang, would you be interested in sharing some of your insights with us today?"

Zhang Bo joked, "You've prepared so thoroughly, your technical presentations are excellent, and you even did a live grafting demonstration. What can I share? All I can say is about breeding, but I might as well go eat some meat." "Hey, I think Professor Zhang just wants to eat mutton," someone laughed from the back of the conference room, immediately eliciting a burst of laughter.

Chen Jiazhi smiled and said, "That's all for today. We can chat again another time. Come on, let's eat!"

"Eat rice, eat rice!"

"That's a brilliant use of the word 'dry rice'!"

Workers, experts, and vegetable farmers all came out of the meeting room, their enthusiasm several times greater than when the meeting was in session.

Chen Jiazhi stared blankly, wondering if they were all here for the meat.

Just then, a vegetable farmer who had fallen behind approached him and asked, "Mr. Chen, when can we order next year's seedlings?"

"It should be ready in June or July," Chen Jiazhi said with a smile. "The exact delivery time depends on when you placed your order."

Wang Daxin nodded and said, "Now I'm relieved. If we had planted them earlier this year, the cucumber yield would have been amazing."

Chen Jiazhi said, "That's right. There's still a lot of potential to be tapped in Yuanmou with grafted seedlings. You won't be disappointed."

Wang Daxin was indeed optimistic about grafted cucumber seedlings, as they had high yields, strong resistance, and the increased income could easily cover the cost of seedlings, not to mention saving on pesticides.

He wanted to try this grafted seedling.

After the meeting, potential pre-orders were received, which made Chen Jiazhi feel relieved that his efforts had not been in vain.

The atmosphere during the gathering was also very lively. Although it's not as difficult to eat meat as it used to be, there are fewer times when we can eat as much as we want.

Whether they were breeders or farmers, everyone was enjoying the mutton to their heart's content.

After a satisfying meal, Chen Jiazhi lit a cigarette and chatted with his core team.

"Old Li, I'm going back to Guangzhou for New Year's Day, so I'm leaving Yunling Farm in your hands."

"Would you like me to slaughter a sheep for you as a send-off?"

"No, you've almost killed all of the villagers' sheep. Just let me go back in peace."

"Hehe, young people are just hot-tempered. They can't hold it in anymore and want to go back and vent their anger."

"Hahaha……"

"Get lost, I'm busy in the fields every day, unlike you who still has the energy to think about these things."

"General Manager Chen, you're just jealous of Director Li."

"Yongxiang, don't cause any trouble, or I might apply to transfer you to Guangzhou or Shanghai."

"Okay, I also want to go out and see the world."

"you……"

"Haha, Yongxiang, work hard at Yunling Farm." Chen Jiazhi blew a smoke ring, "I'll take you out sooner or later."

……

The temperature in Yuanmou is very stable in December, around 25℃ during the day and above 10℃ at night.

Such weather allowed cucumbers grafted with black-seeded pumpkins to maintain their growth even outdoors.

This is especially true for tomatoes.

Only the eggplant and green pepper fell, but no one paid attention to these two 'supporting actors'.

After that training session, more people began to pay attention to the situation of open-field cucumbers, represented by Yunling Farm, and looked forward to what would happen next.

Even the county government took notice, and Ma Ming came to inspect the area twice more, which was quite encouraging.

Zhou Jinhui, from the seed business department, caused him a lot of humiliation. To this day, Zhou Jinhui remains aloof, insisting that the cost of grafted seedlings is too high and will not have any impact on his seed business.

Ma Ming really hoped that Chen Jiazhi would slap him hard across the face.

Chen Jiazhi didn't really care about Zhou Jinhui and wanted to focus on his own work, but he wouldn't hold back when he could slap Zhou Jinhui across the face.

He believes that this day—well, at most, will have to wait another three to five years.

Although their performance is already quite impressive, judging from the experiences of science and technology assistants like Wang Yongxiang, farmers in many areas of Yuanmou have a very low capacity to accept new things and new technologies.

It is not easy to promote it on a large scale.

The only way to break through this impasse is to start with specific points and gradually work towards a broader solution year by year.

However, while selling seedlings might not work, when it comes to growing vegetables, even Chen Jiazhi had to exclaim: "Truly amazing!"
After the daily output exceeded 10,000, the output of Yunling Farm declined, but the daily output remained stable.

Although the eggplant and green peppers died, the cucumbers and tomatoes are still alive and well.

Tomatoes, in particular, may seem unassuming, but they actually have a strong aftereffect.

Soon it was late December, and another very obvious signal came from the Nengyu Vegetable Wholesale Market.

With fewer vegetables available in the early winter, prices have begun to rise across the board.

The agricultural bureau, township governments, Zhong Jiakai, vegetable farmers represented by Wang Daxin, and others who were paying attention to Yunling Farm were pleasantly surprised to find that Yunling Farm was still producing vegetables steadily.

Besides greenhouse vegetables, which are to be expected, there has been no significant reduction in open-field vegetable production.

This is an extremely rare sight in Yuanmou at this time of year!
(End of this chapter)