The number nine is calculated from the day of the winter solstice, and every nine days is a unit, also called "winter nine-nine".
This is a folk method of calculating the dates of cold weather and spring flowers.
Generally speaking, the coldest days are on the 39th and 49th. When the 9th and 9th are eighty-one days, it’s spring and warm weather.
What Ye Mo said before about raising seedlings after the first nine days does not really mean waiting for eighty-one days, but after the first nine days, depending on the temperature. As long as the temperature is suitable, start raising seedlings.
It's after New Year's Day.
The local temperature has a particularly large difference between day and night.
The temperature is in the early 20s during the day, and the lowest temperature at night is...3 degrees Celsius.
The greenhouse for raising seedlings has been set up, and the seedling trays have been filled with nutrient soil. However, the temperature at night has been too low recently, and this temperature will continue for a while...
Watermelons are not resistant to low temperatures. Even grafted watermelon seedlings can easily die if the temperature is too low at night. This temperature is usually set at 7 degrees Celsius as the critical point. Of course, it also depends on the choice of rootstock and the variety of watermelon.
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Later, Ye Mo carried all the fertilizer to the melon field and once again used the rake claw of the excavator to clean up the weed roots in the soil.
Time flies by and it’s January 10th.
Ye Mo took out the seeds that had been sun-dried in advance and started soaking them... This time, he soaked them directly in the spiritual spring without adding water. Then he started germination...
Germination is accelerated and heated with water vapor.
After the seeds germinate, they are planted one by one into the seedling tray.
Germination is carried out in batches, about 4,400 watermelon seedlings and 2,000 cantaloupe seedlings per day.
The rootstocks chosen for watermelon and muskmelon are all gourds. Gourds are annual climbing herbs of the Cucurbitaceae family with well-developed root systems.
The seeds are placed in the seedling tray, and then the greenhouse temperature begins to be controlled.
The seedlings used as rootstock will be planted two or three days later.
In about a week, the grafting work began.
Although grafting watermelon seedlings is very simple, it is a delicate job. A skilled person can graft more than two thousand plants in one day.
Ye Mo invited Uncle Li to come over to help guide him for a day. His parents, his second uncle, his third uncle, and Tang Xun all came over to help. Xiaomian's eldest aunt and uncle also came over to help.
The first day was very slow. With more than 6,000 seedlings and 20 people, we almost didn't finish the work.
The next day, the melon seedlings were grafted faster.
Ye Mo and Lin Xiaomian are busy germinating and planting seeds every day...
The grafting work was done for a while in the afternoon.
As time passes, everyone becomes more and more skilled at grafting seedlings.
The last batch of seeds were all put into the seedling tray of the greenhouse.
Ye Mo has statistics, he purchased 44,000 watermelons for planting.
Anyone who has bought a large amount of seeds should know that when buying seeds, usually they will only give more, not less. Unless you encounter those unscrupulous merchants...
There were actually more than 50,000 watermelon seeds. Some seeds failed to germinate... About 52,000 seeds were planted.
The same is true for cantaloupe. Ye Mo received about 26,000 cantaloupe seeds and planted about 25,000 seeds after germination.
Planting 5,000 seeds of reticulated melon, it looks like 5,500 seeds actually arrived.
Ye Mo studied the density of the grid-shaped melons and planted an additional 5,000 seeds...actually 11,000 seeds.
The germination rate of watermelon seeds, cantaloupe seeds, etc. is usually required to be above 85%. After soaking in Lingquan, the germination rate is particularly high.
The last batch of seeds is put into the seedling tray.
Lin Xiaomian had been squatting for a long time, and her legs were numb. She stood up and stretched her legs and feet: "My legs, they feel like they are about to give out."
"I asked you to sit on the stool, but you refused." Ye Mo walked over and supported her.
"It's too slow to load and unload seeds on a stool." Lin Xiaomian worked quickly, much faster than Ye Mo.
Also helping to plant the seeds were Tang Xun and his wife, as well as Chen Chen and Ye Ran.
Chen Chen and Ye Ran have finally established their relationship.
Ye Mo went to Ye Ran and asked, "Is it done?"
"immediately."
"Where are you?" Ye Mo looked at Tang Xun and Wang Yue and asked.
"There are still a few hundred pills left." Ye Mo looked at the time and saw that it was past four o'clock and said, "If you want to eat crayfish tonight, I will try to get two cages."
"Eat." Tang Xun said with a smile: "Catch more."
The temperature during the day can still be above 20 degrees Celsius, and there are still some crayfish living in the reservoir.
Ye Mo and Lin Xiaomian left the greenhouse and came to the reservoir. They made bait with lobster feed and threw three large cages down.
Ye Mo's mother, second aunt, third aunt, and Tang Xun's mother rode by the reservoir: "We're going back to cook. Xiaomian, are your parents coming over later?"
"We just set off for a while," Lin Xiaomian said.
"Do your parents eat mutton?" Mother Ye said, "I will go to the mountain to buy a sheep and we will eat mutton tomorrow."
"My parents don't have any taboos," Lin Xiaomian said.
Mother Ye smiled and nodded: "We are going back to cook."
The project at Xiaomian's parents' place has finished again, and there is nothing to do.
Rural plasterers are almost all like that. The daily salary seems good, but they only work for a period of time and take a period of rest.
There are more than a dozen people at the seedling greenhouse. They have already completed today's grafting work and are building a small shed in the open space next to it.
After five days, the grafted seedlings are confirmed to be alive...The grafting clamps are removed, and the seedlings are moved to the small shed for seedling hardening. Only after hardening can the seedlings be transplanted.
"Have all the seeds been planted?"
"There are also seedlings of rootstocks..." Ye Mo said.
Father Ye nodded: "Are my father-in-law and the others here?"
"On the way." Ye Mo said.
"Go catch some lobsters and cook lobsters for dinner tonight."
"The floor cage has been placed." Ye Mo said, going over to help spread the film.
It's already January 20th.
The first batch of seedlings will be moved to the shed in two or three days... and they will be custom-made by the end of the month.
Customizing at the end of the month is still very risky.
According to their local weather, the best time for planting is next month...that is, after April 9th.
High risks bring high returns.
Watermelons, especially early-ripening melons, mature a few days earlier, and sometimes...the price can be a few dollars.
Their early-ripening watermelons are mainly found in Yunnan. The price of freshly ripe watermelons is very expensive. After that, the price will be the same every day.
Ye Mo checked the agricultural website and found that this year's watermelon planting area is about the same as last year. The reason is that basic farmland in many places can only grow food.
The fruit industry is developing in mountainous areas.
The policy is definitely good, but some people are happy and some are worried.
The fruit farmers in the mountains here are very happy.
After setting up the small shed, Ye Mo went into the seedling shed and looked at the melon seedlings that had been grafted before.
The survival rate of grafted melon seedlings is almost 100%. Anyway, I looked around and found no dead melon seedlings.
After these melon seedlings were grafted, Ye Mo would come over and spray the melon seedlings once in the evening, and they all grew very well.
After leaving the nursery shed, Ye Mo went to the greenhouse.
The 80 watermelon plants in the greenhouse were planted on the 20th of last month. It has been a month now.
The temperature in the greenhouse is high, and the effect of the low temperature at night is very small.
Ye Mo pushed a cart with a water tank on it.
The water tank has a capacity of 220 liters. Looking around inside...
Dad and the others packed their things and prepared to go back.
Ye Ran, Lin Xiaomian and several other women were on the roadside, talking about something and laughing non-stop.
Tang Xun and Chen Chen walked arm-in-arm towards the reservoir...
Ye Mo took out a bucket of spiritual spring from the space, 45 liters, and poured it directly into the water tank of the cart. Then he pushed the cart outside to collect water. After filling it with water, he stirred it, pushed it into the greenhouse, and watered the melon seedlings.
The vines of these melon seedlings are more than two meters tall.
One plant has three vines left in its leaves.
One main vine that first developed, and two subsidiary vines.
These melon vines grow very fast and can grow more than ten centimeters per day.
After pouring water, Ye Mo smoothed the melon vines.
The melon vines are now very thick, with the root as thick as a little finger.
"What are you doing, why don't you go back?" Lin Xiaomian and the others walked over and asked.
"Immediately." Ye Mo said, "Weeds are growing in the greenhouse again. We have to come over tomorrow to clean up the weeds."