She smiled brightly, the coldness in her eyes melting away like ice and snow. "Potatoes have relatively high requirements for soil. They need loose and well-aerated soil. When tilling the land, you need to till it a little deeper, about eight or nine inches."
"We didn't plow that deep, but it's okay. We can plow it deeper later. Do you think we can still plant today?"
The clan leader couldn't wait any longer.
“It can be planted. You can rest at the county office for a while, and I will go find someone to come and load the potatoes.”
“I have to go and keep an eye on them. These guys don’t know their own strength when they’re working. I’m afraid they’ll break the buds off me.”
Lin Yinan laughed and said, "You can bring a chair and sit next to me as the supervisor."
The guards quickly summoned Lin Hongda and others from Linjia Village to come and move the potatoes.
Lin Hongda and the others were amazed by the potato chunks covered with sprouts on the winnowing basket; it was the first time he had ever seen such a plant.
"The village chief said this stuff is delicious."
"My wife also said it was delicious." Lin Hongda scratched his head. His wife had come to help that day and told him about the potatoes when she got back.
Listening to the people inside discussing the taste of the potatoes, the clan chief outside the kitchen couldn't sit still any longer. He got up, leaned against the door frame, and peered inside.
“I told you to come and do some work, what are you all babbling about? Be gentle, don’t crush those buds.”
He caught sight of someone staring intently at the potato, swallowing hard, and became somewhat exasperated. He panted and cursed, "Stop thinking about food all the time! The city lord said that sprouted potatoes are highly poisonous."
Just then, Lin Yinan came in wearing a straw hat. She helped the clan chief back to his chair and said, "Please sit down, we'll take care of everything."
I stepped into the kitchen, and each potato piece on the winnowing basket had sprouted a finger-length bud.
"Anan, did the old clan chief just say that sprouted potatoes are poisonous?" Lin Hongda was afraid that the clan chief was exaggerating, so he asked Lin Yinan himself when she came in.
"After sprouted potatoes turn green or purple, the area around the sprout holes will contain a large amount of toxic solanine. This toxin is harmful to the human body and should not be eaten."
"Can't it be cooked?"
Some people withdrew their hands in fear, not daring to pick it up.
Lin Yinan: "It's okay to touch it, but you can't eat it. Even after cooking, the toxins are still present."
The group looked at each other and laughed. "That was terrifying! We thought we'd get poisoned just by touching it."
When all the potato chunks were packed and ready to be taken to the field for planting, the clan chief insisted on coming along. Lin Yinan couldn't persuade him otherwise, so she had to ask the guards to bring out the mule and let him sit on it, with the remaining potato baskets placed behind him.
Lin Hongda and his group, carrying baskets, had already set off ahead of them, heading out of the city.
As the mule cart was leaving the city, it encountered Chief Pan, who was returning with a hoe. He voluntarily stepped aside.
"Chief Lin, what are you doing at home instead of resting?"
He stared in surprise when he saw Chief Lin sitting on the mule cart.
The villagers of Linjia Village are truly inhuman. Even though the clan chief is so ill, they still insist on using a mule cart to pull him to the fields.
Sure enough, the clan chief Lin said in a hoarse voice, panting, "Those bastards don't do their jobs carefully. I'll go and check on them to make sure I'm at ease."
You'd better watch out!
After Chief Pan finished speaking, the mule cart had already sped out of the city gate. He shook his head, shouldered his hoe, and continued walking back.
The mule cart stopped by the roadside; the land was surrounded by a cornfield, making it inaccessible.
The villagers of Linjia Village rushed forward to help unload the things from the car, and Lin Yinan helped the clan chief out of the car.
The clan chief said smugly, "When the corn grows up, nobody will know what we planted in it."
"Indeed, having an elder in the family is like having a treasure. Elder Clan Chief, you are our pillar of strength."
Seeing his childlike demeanor, Lin Yinan was happy to coax him.
The clan chief waved to her, "I'll stay here. Go and talk to him about how to plant it."
Lin Yinan took out a neatly folded piece of oil paper from his sleeve pocket and laid it on the ridge of the field.
“The ground is cold, please sit here.”
"Okay, go ahead, don't worry about me."
In the field, Lin Shuo and his men were spreading well-rotted fertilizer, which was made from dried leaves collected by the villagers in the woods during the winter.
The people in front scattered fertilizer, while the people behind mixed it evenly with farm tools, and finally began to form ridges.
Lin Hongda saw her coming and waved to her, "Anan, take a look, is this ridge deep enough?"
"Eight or nine inches is fine."
The book says that ridging can increase the thickness of the planting layer, as well as the soil permeability and better absorption of sunlight over a large area.
In addition, it can also play a role in drought resistance and flood prevention, water storage and fertilizer retention, reduce the occurrence of pests and diseases, and increase potato yield.
"Should we just throw the potatoes down after making the ridges?"
Some villagers stood there helplessly, not knowing how to plant it.
"I'll do it, you all watch carefully."
Lin Yinan carried a basket of wood ash and sprinkled it into the prepared furrows. Then she sprinkled a thin layer of soil to cover the fertilizer and wood ash in the pit. She then planted the potato tubers with the sprouts facing up and covered them with about an inch of soil. She would cover them with soil again after the potatoes sprouted.
"Wow, it's not easy to plant them; they require such meticulous care."
“Corn also needs to be ridged, but once the ridges are formed, you can just throw the seeds down, cover them with soil, and they will grow on their own.”
The villagers complained that growing potatoes was too troublesome and the process was complicated.
Lin Yinan wasn't annoyed at all after hearing this. She smiled and said, "Potatoes need to be cultivated with more care to increase yield."
"Can its yield be higher than that of corn?"
The villagers believe that their corn yield of 300 to 400 jin per mu is already a high yield.
Lin Yinan recalled the contents of the document, a smile appearing on her face.
"According to the Japanese, if the crops were well managed, the yield of potatoes per mu could reach three or four thousand jin, and at least one thousand jin."
As soon as she finished speaking, everyone was stunned, their hands frozen in mid-air.
"Is it really that high?"
"It takes about ninety days for potatoes to grow from planting to maturity, maybe even a little longer. Please be patient and wait to find out."
When Lin Yinan first received the seeds, she carefully examined the already blurred planting instructions. These newly developed seeds were not only cold-resistant but also less prone to insects, and were early-maturing varieties.
Upon hearing this, the villagers became even more careful, treating the animals as if they were chicks about to hatch.
If potatoes were truly so abundant, they would never have to worry about food again.
Because it was a new seed experiment, Lin Shuo would go to the field every day to check on the growth of the potatoes. Five days later, the potatoes sprouted, and he carefully covered them with soil.
Lin Yinan then tossed him the copied potato planting experience booklet, entrusting him with the follow-up management and fertilization.
In April, Yu Shida led his troops to join forces with the King of Dongyue. In May, news of frost came from the Central Plains.
Lin Yinan's worries came true: extreme frost weather could lead to large-scale crop yield reduction or death, resulting in reduced or even no grain production.
The lives of ordinary people will become even more difficult!
It seems that a reduction in grain production this year is inevitable, while wars are still raging in the Central Plains, which may trigger a new crisis.
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