Gastrodia elata is usually unearthed around the summer solstice and then blooms and bears fruit.
At this time of year, it is much easier to dig Gastrodia elata, so at this time, mountain runners go into the mountains in groups carrying pockets and pickaxes.
For Xu Shiyan, he now has no time to go into the mountains to dig Gastrodia elata.
He has a more important task, collecting Gastrodia elata seeds and preparing for the next Gastrodia elata breeding.
The cost of propagating using Gastrodia tuber is still a bit high, and it is not as cost-effective as seed propagation.
Of course, the technical requirements are also a bit more difficult, and you will have to overcome them slowly with experience.
Some Gastrodia elata planted in the old ginseng field in spring have emerged and bloomed. Remove five to ten flower buds from the top of the inflorescence to reduce nutrient consumption.
In the wild, Gastrodia will be pollinated by insects, supplemented by artificial pollination.
After more than 20 days, the fruits mature and should be harvested and stored as soon as possible.
The harvested Gastrodia elata seeds are put into the seeding tube, sprinkled on the fungus leaves mixed with the germination fungus, and mix well.
Afterwards, the mushroom leaves are buried in the mushroom bed with mushroom materials according to certain specifications.
Gastrodia seeds will germinate and grow into rice and hemp. When the rice and hemp grow to a certain level, they can be transplanted. After another year or two, they can be harvested for production.
Although this breeding method is more complicated, the cost is relatively low, and there is no need to purchase Gastrodia elata every year.
“We have done a good job during this period of time.
Next, we have to work hard on the ground."
The development of Gastrodia elata and Asarum is just a side business, the main business is still the cultivation and processing of ginseng.
So we have to prioritize things and not get confused.
“Our farm purchased a tractor and a rotary cultivator this year, so we can dig the soil without manual labor. It can be mechanized, but the requirements are higher.
In our group, some people were assigned to go up the mountain to instruct the machinery to plow, rake, and rid the land.
One thing must be remembered: the tractor's wheels must strictly follow the stringing line and run within the scope of the working road, and are not allowed to cross the pool surface."
The farm has a lot of money and purchased four Dongfanghong tractors this spring, as well as rotary tillers, brush cutters, etc.
It is expected that this autumn's ginseng soiling can be completed with mechanized operations, and manual labor is only used as an auxiliary. This can greatly save manpower, but it also has some shortcomings.
One is that mechanical plowing is not as meticulous as manual work, and the other is that when the tractor is working, the ginseng planted in the place where the wheels are pressed will rot.
No one can explain this problem clearly, but as long as it is a tractor track, it will be ruined.
In order to prevent this problem, Xu Shiyan specifically discussed with Secretary Lin to reduce the length of the work road, also known as the horse road, to ensure that the tractor road is right on the work road.
Reducing the width of the working road is not only to cooperate with mechanical soil plowing, but more importantly, to rationally utilize the land.
The current ginseng working roads are relatively wide, and some horse trails are even wider than Chimianzi. This is actually unreasonable and cannot achieve the effective utilization of land.
The bridleway is just called a bridleway, but it does not say that it can really run away horses. In fact, the bridleway is only wide enough for a person carrying a watering can to pass smoothly.
Waiting for another twenty years, when the cost of ginseng is tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars per hectare, the horse road will be so narrow that no one can pass it.
Now one hectare of land can produce about 700 feet of ginseng soil. In the future, one hectare of land can produce 1,200 feet of ginseng. All of that is money.
The land that can be used to plant ginseng will only become less and less. If we don't pay attention to rational utilization now, when there is no more land to use in the future, the ginseng industry will also die.
For this purpose, Xu Shiyan wrote a special article, "Narrowing Work Roads and Improving Land Utilization Efficiency."
This article was published in the journal of Fusong Ginseng Society some time ago and caused a lot of discussion.
The leaders of the county also attach great importance to it, and even specially convened the leaders of various participating sites and communes to hold a meeting to discuss it, and it may be implemented in the whole county.
"I understand, team leader, we must strictly follow the operation requirements and watch the tractor driver work without making any mistakes." Han Limin and others nodded in agreement.
"Well, ginseng is one aspect, and the other is this year's ginseng labor."
"It's almost time to pick up the goods again. At the processing plant, the equipment needs to be inspected in advance and new processes need to be developed. We have more important things."
"At the comprehensive factory, the ginseng flower drink dew has been successfully developed, and at Guangzhou Huacheng, the soda water factory we cooperate with has also begun production.
We cannot relax, we must continue to work hard, there are still technical problems that need to be solved.
Keep your spirits up and don’t relax.”
Ginseng flower dew is a project that Xu Shiyan started researching before he came to Yi Ginseng Field.
Ginseng flower dew cola was proposed by Xu Shiyan on the basis of ginseng flower dew.
He discussed with Secretary Lin that it would be best to build the factory locally instead of just providing raw materials.
Fusong has good mountains and good water. Many mineral water brands in later generations have built factories here.
If we don’t take advantage of such a good resource, what’s the point of just providing raw materials to others?
“Our migrant workers research this year mainly focuses on two aspects.
One is to develop ginseng ready-to-eat honey tablets. Once this is made, it will be almost like a snack. You can take it out and eat a piece anytime and anywhere.
For people in our country, it is still too luxurious.
But for foreign countries, especially South Korea and Dongyi, they prefer to eat ginseng antler products, and this method is more acceptable."
With the current equipment and processing level of the processing plant, deeper processing is still not possible.
The process of this kind of instant honey slices is not particularly complicated, just slice it into slices and marinate it with good honey.
It can be made into cans, preferably single-piece plastic-sealed independent packaging. For snacks, one piece comes in a pack, and can be opened and eaten at any time.
Ginseng is both medicinal and edible.
Needless to say, it has medicinal uses, such as Ginseng Zaozhao Pills, Ginseng Dabu Pills, Ginseng Jianpi Pills, etc.
Overseas, ginsenosides, ginsenosides and other ingredients can also be extracted separately for use.
Common ways of eating it are mostly stewing chicken soup, making tea, cooking porridge, etc. It should be said that it is quite troublesome.
This kind of instant honey tablets can be eaten as a snack. You can eat it anytime and anywhere, just open a pack.
There is good honey concocted to remove the fire energy of ginseng, nourish yin, moisturize dryness, and increase vitality.
Relatively speaking, it is more popular among young people, especially those busy white-collar workers.
When Xu Shiyan introduced it like this, everyone in the technical team was dumbfounded. No one thought that such a method could be possible.
"Team leader, your method is good, but the ginseng we produce is taken away directly by the provincial medicinal company.
This kind of medicine company has no purchasing plan." Someone next to him raised an objection.
Xu Shiyan smiled and said, "Do you think that with the current development momentum of ginseng in our county, if the output doubles in two or three years, the provincial medicinal materials company will still have the ability to purchase it all?
If they can't buy them all, where will the market be for the ginseng we have worked so hard to cultivate?"
A few words made the people below turn pale with fright.
"No way? Ginseng has always been purchased and sold under a centralized system. Can the province still purchase it?
So if the province can’t collect that much, what can we do?”
In the era of planned economy, ginseng management implemented the policy of unified planning, unified production, unified acquisition, and unified sales.
The ginseng produced in Fusong is purchased by the Provincial Medicinal Materials Company and the Provincial Medicine and Health Products Import and Export Company.
However, with the implementation of the household responsibility system, the ginseng industry in various places is booming.
By 1989, superiors issued documents stating that, except for the two companies mentioned above, which would be acquired in accordance with the previously signed five-year purchase and sale contracts, the county would organize the acquisition of the rest on its own.
At that time, ginseng production increased rapidly, and the county simply did not have the ability to purchase all of it, which resulted in a large backlog of ginseng.
Although governments at all levels have taken many positive measures, they have not been able to save the situation.
Beginning in 1990, ginseng prices plummeted, hitting rock bottom in 1992. Since then, the ginseng market has been in decline.
But now, the situation has changed.
Because of the use of fertilizers on ginseng fields, the era of large-scale increases in ginseng production is coming.
So, do provincial medicinal materials companies and health care product companies still have the ability to fully acquire them? They may be able to persist for a few years, but the future prospects are still not optimistic.
Chinese people have a bad habit of following the trend. As long as they see what others are doing and make money, many people will flock in.
The same is true for the ginseng industry. In recent years, ginseng production has increased, and the income of ginseng farmers has increased. Following this, ginseng farmers in various places have expanded their planting on a large scale.
Needless to say, each community and team originally participated in the event. Each enterprise and institution either organized its own participation, or organized the event with the forestry farm affiliated to the Forestry Bureau.
Even in units such as primary schools and supply and marketing cooperatives, if they have some money to invest, they will invest it.
The blind expansion of ginseng planting area has resulted in a sharp decline in ginseng prices.
No one buys the ginseng grown, so ginseng farmers lower prices to each other in order to reduce losses.
So this spring, when the county held a commendation meeting, Xu Shiyan proposed that relevant departments should strictly control the ginseng planting area and not blindly expand it.
However, his remarks were opposed by many people.
Many people feel that Xu Shiyan has forgotten his roots now that he has a formal job and has left the agricultural team.
Regardless of the overall situation, they will restrict the development of others and hinder the economic development of the county.
This is speaking for the state-owned enterprises, and they want to monopolize the market. Anyway, they say anything.
Some people who opposed it almost canceled Xu Shiyan's personal awards.
Thanks to the support of the secretary in charge, Xu Shiyan was not punished.
Later, Xu Shiyan came back and discussed this issue with Secretary Lin. Secretary Lin had the same idea as Xu Shiyan.
In any field, blind expansion will only lead to greater crises.
Therefore, one must be at the forefront and cannot wait until the crisis comes to find a way to break the situation. By then it will be too late.
“The state-owned No. 1 Participation Center has the longest history among the four Participation Centers in the county and is considered the big brother.
Therefore, the first site must take the lead. As the technical research department of the first site, we must take the lead and produce top products, and we must not let outsiders look down upon us.
The product is out. As for sales, we don’t have to worry about it. Secretary Lin and the county management secretary will consider it.
What we have to do is to research technical problems and make products with the highest value, the greatest profit, and the products that customers want to buy most. This is our task."