Li Shaozhong and his team built three more greenhouses and stopped there. Four greenhouses were sufficient for the small crop, and more could be built later if needed. The weather was about to warm up, and plants could be grown outdoors.

Ye Shuning planted mushroom grass seeds in a greenhouse. Perhaps because the seeds had been optimized, the mushroom grass seeds germinated after a few days, and the germination rate was very high, so the seeds can be used for planting in the future.

Ye Shuning quickly planted a variety of vegetables in the greenhouse in her yard. Since they were seeds grown at the institute, they quickly germinated and grew beautifully. She planted cucumbers, tomatoes, bok choy, peppers, eggplant, and other vegetables. She wasn't sure if they would eventually grow well, so she just treated it as an experiment.

It was already the end of March, and April was just around the corner. The temperature was gradually rising, reaching over ten degrees Celsius during the day. Ye Shuning and Li Shaozhong transplanted the sea buckthorn seedlings outdoors, letting them grow in the open air.

The mushroom grass in the greenhouse has grown very tall. Li Shaozhong and Guyucheng have cultivated some new seedlings using the cutting method.

The cotton bolls in the research institute have already bloomed. The bolls are very large, and you can pick a bunch of cotton from one.

In the evening, Li Shaozhong and Ye Shuning started picking cotton together. Li Shaozhong was very pleased to see a large snow-white cotton flower. "Xiao Ning, this cotton boll is really big. This cotton flower is like a handful of cotton. With so many cotton bolls on one cotton plant, the cotton must be very productive."

Ye Shuning said, "This is at the research institute. I wonder if the yield will be the same outside. After we harvest the cotton, we'll collect the cotton seeds and try planting them outside. The cotton seeds we harvest should be enough to plant two mu of land."

The two men collected all the opened cotton and put it into bags. After all the cotton was collected and dried, Li Shaozhong prepared to find a place to process the cotton.

The wolfberries have already borne fruit, and the branches are densely packed with fruits, which shows that the yield is high.

Ye Shuning went online to carefully research the propagation methods of wolfberries. "Honey, I'm going to try growing wolfberries from seeds, but the quality of wolfberry seedlings grown from seeds is not guaranteed. If I use the cutting method, it will be much better. I can choose those good plants to select branches." I looked it up online again and found a method of growing seedlings by cuttings of softwood branches that is very good.

The current method of propagation should be seed seedlings or hardwood seedlings. Hardwood seedlings are too slow to propagate and can only be raised once a year, and only in spring.

Softwood seedling cultivation is an effective method for rapidly and large-scale propagation of high-quality varieties. It can be used year-round. Multiple cuttings can be produced from a single branch, resulting in a high propagation rate and high seedling purity. Softwood cuttings have well-developed root systems, resulting in a high survival rate and rapid growth after transplantation.

When Li Shaozhong heard about the many advantages of this method, he said, "Then let's give it a try."

The soil in the greenhouse had already been tilled, so Li Shaozhong had the workers till the open fields outside. This time, Ye Shuning and his group occupied a total of 100 mu (approximately 100 acres), all of which belonged to Wangjing Village, surrounding the courtyard. Therefore, Ye Shuning paid Wangjing Village a lump sum of 1,000 yuan in compensation. She planned to pay this annually, which would also serve as a source of income for Wangjing Village.

A thousand yuan was a huge sum for farmers in this era. A farmer in Wangjing Village could barely fill his stomach with his annual harvest, and on a good year, he could make a few dozen yuan in surplus.

There are more than 400 people in Wangjing Village. If this money is distributed, each family can get dozens of yuan.

The people who worked for Li Shaozhong could take home two yuan a day, which made the other people in Wangjing Village very envious. They all hoped that Li Shaozhong and his experimental base would recruit more workers.

A few days later, the cotton at the institute was harvested, and the goji berries were ripe. The ripe goji berries were soft and lustrous, plump, and fairly large. Ye Shuning tasted them and found them sweet, with a slight bitterness in her throat. They were a good variety.

Li Shaozhong and Ye Shuning used the evening to harvest them. Ye Shuning took the harvested wolfberries to the laboratory for testing and found that the quality was very good and the medicinal value was very high.

Ye Shuning recalled that in her previous life, research on Lycium barbarum polysaccharides (Lycium barbarum polysaccharides) had yielded significant results. These studies had shown that Lycium barbarum polysaccharides had immune-boosting, anti-aging, anti-tumor, free radical scavenging, anti-fatigue, anti-radiation, liver protection, and reproductive function protection and improvement. Furthermore, anti-tumor and liver-protecting drugs had been developed.

The goji berries produced by the institute have high medicinal value, which makes Ye Shuning very confident about the future of goji berry cultivation. If goji berry cultivation reaches a large scale in the future, she will set up a pharmaceutical factory to ensure the full utilization of goji berries, which will also bring great economic benefits to the local area.

However, these are just ideas, and we have to wait and see how things develop in the future.

After harvesting the wolfberries, Ye Shuning cut some hard branches to cultivate tender shoots. She soaked the hard branches in rooting liquid and stuck them into the soil, waiting for them to sprout tender shoots.

Five sacks of cotton were harvested. The cotton was quite dry, so Ye Shuning dried it for a day before having Li Shaozhong drive the cotton to the county for processing. When Li Shaozhong returned, he brought back the fluffed cotton and clean cotton seeds.

Ye Shuning was preparing to plant cotton. She wanted to use plastic film when she planted. "Husband, ask Comrade Gu tomorrow if we can buy plastic film here. If we use plastic film to plant cotton, the germination rate should be higher and it will grow faster.

I have some mulch in my lab, but we only have so much of it with the truck we brought in. Taking out more would probably arouse suspicion. Ask if they have any for sale here, and we'll sell some. Even if it's hard to find, we can still find a way to trace it back to the lab."

Li Shaozhong knew that the ground film could moisturize and keep warm, which would help the cotton seeds germinate.

Li Shaozhong said, "Then I'll ask Guyu City tomorrow."

The growth rate of the Juncao outside is obviously not as fast as that in the research institute, but its growth can still be clearly seen. Now the Juncao in the greenhouse has grown to more than half a meter. The greenhouse where the Juncao is planted is already a sea of ​​green.

Guyucheng is more active than Li Shaozhong every day, and records the growth of mushroom grass every day.

The sea buckthorn seedlings have all survived and are growing well outdoors. Guyu City has also taken on the task of recording the sea buckthorn's growth.

Li Shaozhong asked Gu Yucheng about the mulch film. Gu Yucheng frowned and said, "I'm afraid it's hard to buy. We don't really use it for farming here, and ordinary people don't want to spend the extra money. Some agricultural departments may use it when planting experimental fields. But you can go to the city or provincial government to see if they can find it."