Next to the experimental field, Qiao Xuejun led his men to start plowing the land.
She brought in all the fermented manure that had accumulated during the extreme cold period and turned it into the fields.
The soil was all frozen, so working was difficult. But there were a lot of people, more than a hundred in total, and they could work more than 30 acres a day. After half a month, they had turned over half of the back mountain.
Qiao Xuejun first started planting from the edge of the mountain, planting purple flowers.
The Research Department needs a large amount of purple flowers to support later research and development. The area along the foot of the mountain can also be used as a defensive wall.
A month passed after we finished planting the purple flowers along the foot of the mountain.
At the same time, Yapao Mountain was also under construction.
After Qiao Xuejun finished planting the purple flowers, he released more than a hundred people, and they also went to participate in the Yapaoshan project.
After more people came, they found the fifty ice-footed cows in a remote valley at the foot of Mupao Mountain. They led them back to the base, built a cowshed next to the stable, assigned people and settled them there.
During this period, the temperature rose and stabilized at -10°C. Rye was growing rapidly and had already begun to ear and fill with grain.
The harvest is coming soon.
After this season's trials and observations, she found that this new rye is particularly cold-resistant and very suitable for cultivation in this extremely cold environment. She has selected individuals with particularly excellent cold-resistance performance and plans to save them for seeds.
"Minister, these rye buds have been grafted. They look heavy. Is it time to harvest them?"
Qiao Xuejun was inspecting the rye fields with her people from the Ministry of Agriculture when Xiao Feng asked.
Qiao Xuejun walked to one of the rye plants and held up an ear of wheat: "Come and see."
Xiao Feng and a few others came over.
Qiao Xuejun took off her gloves and pinched the wheat grains with her fingernails. After pinching, she raised her hand and her fingertips were wet.
"Look," she gestured to the crowd, "the water content is still quite high."
Everyone saw the moisture on her fingers.
Qiao Xuejun explained: "The grain filling period after grafting is divided into three stages: milky, waxy, and fully ripe. The kernels will evolve from milky juice to waxy texture to hard kernels."
Xiao Feng: "So it's the milky ripe stage now?"
Qiao Xuejun shook her head. "When squeezed during the milky stage, it becomes a white pulp. Now it just has some moisture, and it's in the waxy stage."
She gestured for everyone to look at the state of the rye: "The plant itself will also change from green, to yellow-green, and then to withered yellow."
The plant is now yellow-green.
"It's still early in the waxy season and not suitable for picking. Let's wait a few days until the moisture level drops a bit."
She further expanded on the knowledge point: "Now is the right time to make silage."
Her students were eager to learn: "What is silage?"
Qiao Xuejun: "Fresh grass fermented feed. This kind of rye can be used as animal feed. It's very good for horses, cattle, and rabbits. Silage is more nutritious than hay feed."
"You can think of it as pickles for animals, with a long shelf life."
Jin Yiyun asked, "How did you do it?"
Qiao Xuejun explained the production steps one by one, and finally said regretfully: "There is still too little rye now, and it cannot be wasted, otherwise I would show you how to do it."
After recording the silage production in his study notes, Xiao Feng asked, "Do we have to wait until the wheat is fully ripe before harvesting it?"
Qiao Xuejun: "No, we can harvest them at the end of the waxy stage."
Seeing everyone's confusion, she explained in detail: "At full maturity, the wheat stalks will become completely brittle, lose their toughness, and easily fall over. The wheat kernels will also fall off on their own, all of which will ultimately lead to a reduction in yield."
"To avoid this, harvest the wheat a day earlier. After harvesting, dry the wheat kernels to evaporate the excess moisture."
Xiao Feng took notes and nodded: "I got it!"
·
Just as Qiao Xuejun said, after about a week, the rye became increasingly yellow and reached the waxy stage.
Start harvesting.
Three acres of land is not a lot, and with 10 people working together, they finished harvesting in two hours.
Qiao Xuejun collected the excellent individuals she liked in advance.
After harvesting, threshing is carried out.
From 3 mu of land, we harvested a total of 700 kilograms.
One of them said: "It's only 700 kilograms. I remember my family used to grow wheat, and we could harvest more than 700 kilograms per acre!"
It is normal that wheat has a higher yield than rye.
Qiao Xuejun was not too surprised. 700 kilograms from 3 mu of land was a low yield for rye, but because there were not enough seeds, the 3 mu of land was originally planted sparsely. In addition, this was a wild species, so 700 kilograms was considered acceptable.
These 700 jin can be used as seeds to plant more than 40 mu of land. When the harvest comes next year, there will be about 10,000 jin.
No other plant has a higher yield than potatoes. One acre of potato can yield 10,000 kilograms.
But there are plenty of potatoes now, so there is no need to plant them anymore.
Among them, 30 kilograms are high-quality seeds that Qiao Xuejun specially left behind and planted separately. They are just enough to plant 2 mu of land.
"Minister, do these need to be planted individually in a greenhouse?" Xiao Feng asked.
He felt that the greenhouse was warm and had special plant lighting, which was suitable for crop growth, and would definitely grow faster than if planted outside.
Anyway, these high-quality seeds are experimental in nature. Wouldn’t it be easier to observe if they grew faster?
Qiao Xuejun shook her head. "No, the rye must be vernalized before it can bloom and be grafted next year. Otherwise, it will be a waste."
The process of vernalization is the process of rye going through a long and cold winter. Only after going through this process can it bloom and bear ears.
Of the over 700 jin of wheat grains, Qiao Xuejun only gave 10 jin to Uncle Zhang, and used the rest as seeds, planting them in the tilled land on the back mountain.
Together with 2 mu of the best seeds selected from the best, a total of 37 mu of rye fields were planted.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
