Chapter 425: A Few Things About Returning to the Village
Now that he has returned to the village, Gao Mingcheng naturally wants to take a look around his own territory.
May is the month when flowers bloom and everything flourishes, and Xiaofushan also becomes particularly vibrant.
After a year of planting, the fruit trees are thriving, with lush branches and leaves, which is a pleasure to look at.
Gao Mingcheng walked around Xiaofushan, checking the condition of various fruit trees.
There are many insect pests in spring, so he needs to check them out in time and then determine whether top dressing is needed based on the growth of the leaves, flowers and fruits of the fruit trees.
At this moment, green fruits are hanging on the loquat trees. When the fruits turn yellow, they will be ripe.
The Dongkui bayberry trees that Gao Mingcheng had high hopes for also grew small green fruits hidden among the lush leaves. Only when the bayberries turned red would they reveal their beauty and attract attention.
As for the most common orange tree, the flowers on the tree are about to wither and are in a dilapidated stage. Only the pomegranate flowers are hanging high on the treetops, showing their beauty to nature.
Gao Mingcheng's orchard is messy because it lacks scientific planning. He planted some fruit trees that are suitable for local growth.
At the foot of a mountain, there is a small rack where grapes are planted. When they were planted last year, the vines were very small, but this year the vines have become much thicker and have grown a lot of grape leaves. Under the broad leaves, there are bunches of small green grapes hanging.
While Gao Mingcheng was walking in the mountains, he met Chen Dasong and his son.
They also work in the mountains.
Gao Mingcheng asked Chen Duofu to manage the beehives, but the beehives did not need to be looked after every day, so he often followed Chen Dasong to Xiaofushan to do some work.
The three of them met in Xiaofushan and naturally greeted each other, and then Chen Dasong talked about some things in the orchard.
"Ming Cheng, several grapefruit trees have scale insects. We need to buy insecticide as soon as possible, otherwise all nearby fruit trees will be infested with insects."
"Also, we need to apply fertilizer in June. We also need to buy some manure and urea."
"Of the more than 100 chickens, eight died in total, and I don't know where the remaining ones are. Maybe they were taken away by some wild animals."
Chen Dasong reported conscientiously.
Gao Mingcheng nodded and said, "Okay, I'll get the pesticides and fertilizers back this afternoon, and you can use them when the time comes. As for the chickens, it's normal for a few to die."
After Chen Dasong finished his report, Chen Duofu immediately said, "Mingcheng, there is honey in the beehive. Can we shake the honey now?"
This was Chen Duofu’s first time raising bees, and he was not fully sure about the situation of the honey. At this moment, he looked at Gao Mingcheng with a curious look.
Gao Mingcheng asked: "How is the beehive? Is the colony strong or weak?"
Chen Duofu thought for a moment before saying, "It's OK. I can't see any big problems."
Gao Mingcheng decided to take him to see the condition of the beehives himself.
So Chen Duofu led the way in front, and Gao Mingcheng followed with the two dogs.
When he returned to the village, the black tiger and the elf would always run over and follow him, being so affectionate and unwilling to leave.
Soon, the two came to a slightly flat hillside where there were more than a dozen beehives.
Gao Mingcheng walked forward, opened the lid of the beehive, and checked the condition of the bee colony inside.
"Hey, there are two injured bees! It seems that they were driven out by other bees and they are not allowed to return to the beehive." Chen Duofu noticed that several bees were expelling two injured bees, and was a little surprised and puzzled for a moment.
Gao Mingcheng told him the importance of the strength of a bee colony, so he felt it was a pity when bees got injured in a fight.
Gao Mingcheng looked in the direction his finger pointed, couldn't help but laugh, and said, "Didn't you see that the two bees that were driven away were relatively large? Look carefully, there's something missing from them! These two are drones, they must have just mated with the queen bee, their sex organs were left inside the queen bee, and when the sex organs were broken, their internal organs were taken out with them, so they won't live long."
"The bee colonies are intelligent. They will expel sick bees to keep the colony healthy."
"But you also have to pay attention. If there are many bees fighting, then they may be splitting up. So when the new queen bee grows up, it's time to divide the hives. By the way, I'll ask a carpenter to build a few more beehives as backup. You can watch over them when the time comes."
Gao Mingcheng decided to buy some more beehives.
I used to do everything myself, but I was too busy. Now I have hired Chen Duofu to manage the beehives, so I can raise more beehives.
Gaojia Village is surrounded by mountains on three sides. Behind the small hills near the village are more vast mountains. Therefore, you can raise more bees without worrying about the problem of nectar sources.
Chen Duofu had no objection and listened carefully to the techniques taught by Gao Mingcheng.
After Gao Mingcheng checked the honey comb, he found that the honey inside was indeed brewed, and the color was very good, so he nodded and said: "In this case, the honey can be shaken out. If you can't control it, just shake the honey a few days later, otherwise the new honey will have too much water and will be difficult to preserve."
Chen Duofu nodded repeatedly to indicate that he remembered it.
"Let's go back and get the honey extractor." Gao Mingcheng led Chen Duofu back to his house at the foot of Niuweiling Mountain.
He had a lot of farm tools here, so in order to make it convenient for Chen Dasong and others to use them, he gave them the keys to the courtyard gate and the main hall.
Only the bedroom where Gao Mingcheng and Xuanyuemei lived was locked with a new lock.
But there is nothing valuable in this house.
After getting the honey extractor, he returned to the mountains again.
Gao Mingcheng first taught Chen Duofu how to shake honey. When Chen Duofu said he had learned it, Gao Mingcheng let Chen Duofu do it.
He stood by and stared for a while, and found that Chen Duofu had indeed learned it.
So he said, "When there is more honey in the honey extractor, you can take it home and pour it into a pottery basin to let it settle, and then continue to go into the mountains to extract the honey. Remember to cover the pottery basin with clean gauze, otherwise insects will get in."
"When the sediment is settled, pour the upper layer of honey into the bottle with a funnel, and filter the remaining residue with clean gauze before collecting it."
"Oh. I remember it." Chen Duofu said.
After Gao Mingcheng finished explaining the matter, he left.
He drove his cool tractor to the cooperative in Junling.
Pesticides and urea are sold here.
In addition to buying these things, he also bought some snacks. Since he was returning to the village, he decided to stay overnight before leaving.
After returning to Xiaofushan, Gao Mingcheng took out the farm tools for spraying pesticides, mixed the pesticides and water in a certain proportion, and went to deal with the insect-infested fruit trees with Chen Dasong.
Scale insects are a very common insect pest that easily appears when the temperature rises in spring every year.
If fruit trees are infested with scale insects and are not managed, there will be dense white insects on the leaves, which will cause the leaves to turn yellow and die, and the fruits to rot.
However, because they were discovered early, there are not many insect pests on these pomelo trees. They only need to be sprayed with pesticides in time, and it should not affect the subsequent fruiting.
However, the pomelo trees are still small this year and may not bear fruit.
When it comes to farm work, Chen Dasong is better than Gao Mingcheng, so Chen Dasong is in charge of spraying pesticides.
Not only the trees with insects were sprayed with pesticides, but also the nearby trees. This is because after the scale insects become adults, they will fly to nearby trees to lay eggs. These eggs that are difficult to see with the naked eye must also be killed.
The days back in the village are so plain and simple. All I do is work. But there are many kinds of farm work, including turning the soil, weeding, fertilizing, and spraying pesticides.
(End of this chapter)
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