Wasteland Survivalist: A Scientific Guide to Post-Apocalyptic Survival

"September 6th, the 9th day of the seventh lunar month, the full moon day, the Ghost Festival. 60 days after the solar storm, 45 days after the outbreak of nuclear war. Fished in the morning, nothing happened."

Gu Lang opened his diary and wrote the beginning.

As a respectable person, he never kept a diary before; live streaming videos were the best way for him to record his experiences.

He developed this new habit after the outbreak of nuclear war.

Initially, it was used to facilitate the calculation of nuclear radiation intake, but now it has become a material ledger.

If I were to die unexpectedly someday, I'd probably become a historical reference for future generations.

Of course, this is all predicated on the existence of descendants...

At this moment, Gu Lang was sitting on the deck with a homemade fishing rod in front of him.

Feeling bored because the buoy hadn't moved, he started looking through the records he had kept from taking inventory of supplies a few days ago.

As for staple foods, there are more than 250 kilograms of rice, flour, oats and dried noodles combined.

As for seasonings, there are still 20 jin of salt left, and more than 200 jin of white sugar that have been basically untouched.

There are still 90 liters of various cooking oils left, and more than 30 kilograms of bear jerky.

With the addition of various canned goods, milk powder, tea, cocoa powder, coffee powder, honey, and other supplementary foods, it is roughly estimated that it would be enough to sustain him for more than a year.

Before Li Zheng and Wang Bin left, they left him most of a box of individual rations and several buckets of compressed biscuits.

Although it doesn't taste good, it provides extremely high energy density and a long shelf life.

There was a conspicuous blank at the end of the list; the fresh vegetables had run out.

The potatoes and cabbages that Gu Lang initially stole from the fields had already been eaten up some time ago, and he hadn't encountered them again along the way.

Long-term deficiencies in vitamins, dietary fiber, and trace elements can lead to a series of health problems such as scurvy and weakened immunity, lessons learned the hard way in the history of long-distance voyages.

"We can't just sit around and do nothing," Gu Lang stood up and stretched. "It's time to plant some vegetables."

He put away his fishing rod and went into the cabin, then went down the stairs to the lower deck.

There is an empty room opposite the passenger bedroom, which was originally the crew rest room.

Previously, in order to reduce weight and make room, the beds and furniture inside had already been cleaned up.

It is now being used as a storage room, where spare parts and large items that have been collected are stored.

Without further ado, Gu Lang spent most of the day sorting out the miscellaneous items inside.

The usable parts were moved to the storage space in other cabins, while the useless parts were temporarily piled up in the warehouse.

The emptied room is 3 meters long, 2 meters wide, and 2.5 meters high, with a volume of 15 cubic meters, enough to build a small indoor farm.

He brought over the white PVC rainwater pipes he had collected in the village and began cutting and assembling them.

The most suitable way to grow vegetables and fruits indoors is hydroponics.

Unfortunately, this is on a boat, and the rough seas would cause the hydroponic solution to overflow.

Therefore, Gulang abandoned the complex hydroponic cycle concept and instead adopted a more stable soil substrate pipeline cultivation method.

He found a measuring tape and connected the 110 mm diameter main pipe to the 2.8-meter long pipe.

Draw a point every 200 millimeters, take out an electric drill, install a 76-millimeter hole saw, and drill out circular planting holes.

Next, use the matching elbows, tees, and plugs to connect the water pipes together.

Two water pipes are installed on each floor, spaced 30 centimeters apart.

The planting rack has a three-tiered structure with a total of 84 planting positions.

The vertical spacing between each layer is 70 centimeters, and the bottom pipes are 30 centimeters off the ground for easy operation and inspection.

The top duct is 80 centimeters away from the ceiling to allow space for installing supplementary lighting and maintaining air circulation.

All pipes were securely fastened to handrail supports on the walls and ground with clips and straps to protect against the risk of soil displacement and pipe rollover caused by the ship's movement.

After setting up the basic framework, Gu Lang cut off several sections of rubber hose, drilled small holes in them, and fixed them to the bottom of the main pipe.

It acts as a drain to remove excess water and prevent root rot in plants.

To prevent soil erosion from clogging the holes, Gulang specially laid a 20mm thick layer of gravel at the bottom as a drainage layer.

After adding another layer of permeable non-woven fabric, the nutrient soil was finally filled into the pipe.

Then, he laid water-saving drip irrigation tape over the pipe and aligned the drippers with each planting hole.

The drip irrigation tape is connected to the faucet in the crew restroom through pipes, and the water volume is automatically adjusted by a timed irrigation device.

The watering device has two knobs, one to control the watering interval and the other to control the watering duration.

Gulang can adjust the water volume at any time based on the feedback from the drain pipe.

Compared to manual watering, this method saves both effort and precious freshwater resources.

At the same time, keep the vegetable leaves dry to reduce leaf diseases.

Three large, round plant grow lights were installed on the ceiling, replacing the original ordinary lighting.

Full-spectrum LEDs are rich in red and blue light, which is more conducive to plant photosynthesis.

The fill light has a built-in timer function that can automatically simulate a 12 to 14 hour light cycle per day.

Four small rectangular plant grow lights are fixed above the two lower layers of the growing rack to provide comprehensive lighting and prevent the vegetables from blocking the light as they grow.

Although the ceiling has ventilation equipment, it is still a bit insufficient after the room is repurposed.

So, Gulang installed a fan in the planting area to promote air circulation.

This not only reduces humidity and prevents mold, but also makes plant stems stronger.

For the first batch of plants, Gulang selected varieties that were fast-growing, shade-tolerant, and suitable for container cultivation.

He picked out lettuce, water spinach, and bok choy from the seed packet and began germinating and breeding them.

These three vegetables are all relatively easy to grow, making them good for beginners.

Gu Lang found a large bottle cap, placed a layer of soft cotton cloth on it, poured in a small amount of water to wet it, and created a humid environment.

Then put some seeds inside, cover it with plastic wrap, and place it in an insulated box.

This hand-operated insulated box consists of a small medical waste transport box and a heated seat, and contains some bottled water to increase the specific heat capacity and prevent excessive temperature changes.

The optimal germination temperature for most vegetable seeds is between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius, such as lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, radishes, etc.

Cold-resistant vegetables, such as spinach, coriander, peas, and lettuce, have a slightly lower optimal germination temperature, around 15 to 20 degrees Celsius.

For warm-loving vegetables such as eggplant, bell pepper, and water spinach, the optimal germination temperature is between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius.

Therefore, it is necessary to use a thermometer to observe the seeds at any time. If the temperature is too low, germination will be slow and the seeds will become moldy.

High temperatures can inhibit seed germination, causing a sharp drop in germination rate and even burning the young shoots.

To simulate the natural environment as closely as possible, Gulang deliberately created a temperature difference in the insulated box by controlling the power of the heated seat cushion.

Keep the temperature around 25 degrees Celsius during the day and around 20 degrees Celsius at night.