Chapter 86 of 100

Chapter 86

20 min read4,892 words

Next to the greenhouse, Yang Yuanzhao saw Yang Yue directing the workers. The transplanting of cotton, a crucial step in cotton cultivation, determines whether there will be an increase in yield based on the success rate of the transplanting.

This task, at present, can only rely on human labor. Over the past few weeks, after the wheat harvest, the thousands of farmers hired by the Baokeng Company mainly worked on digging holes.

Unlike the random planting by ordinary farmers, under Yang Yuanzhao's guidance, the entire cotton field was evenly distributed with medium density, with an average of 4,800 to 5,000 plants per mu. The reasonable spacing allowed the cotton to grow in a more orderly manner, ensuring that each plant received the best light conditions.

In the future, the survival rate of cotton transplants would be over 98%, but in this era, due to various constraints, it might not reach such a high level. However, Yang Yuanzhao and Yang Yue did their best to ensure the success rate. They dug transplant holes neatly in the soil, then added base fertilizer and chemical fertilizer. After these were reasonably mixed, during the final transplanting, the soil from the seedling trays was also transplanted, using small terracotta pots, each containing only two seeds, for this purpose.

Thanks to the existence of the greenhouse and the ample manpower, the germination rate of the cotton in the greenhouse was extremely high, over 95%. The abundant nutrients, water, and carbon dioxide made the plants stronger than ordinary ones.

Yang Yue, who was most familiar with this, had encountered Upland cotton in the United States, a high-quality cotton variety. However, even the best cotton varieties are not without flaws. Upland cotton has its own disadvantages. As a common cotton variety in the United States, its initial characteristics are not good, and its adaptability to the environment is poor, which affects its yield and quality to some extent. However, its strong later stages make it stand out among many cotton varieties, becoming a new type of cotton that is marketed worldwide.

In the United States and even in Europe, many scientists are researching methods to improve Upland cotton. If the patterns of Upland cotton can be identified and its initial weaknesses can be changed to enhance its adaptability, the major drawbacks of Upland cotton can be compensated for, and its overall performance can be significantly improved.

As an agricultural scholar, Yang Yue had once considered researching this, but he did not expect that Yang Yuanzhao had solved it in the simplest way. Using chemical fertilizers, base fertilizers, and increasing nutrition, the cotton seeds were better absorbed, and with the help of the greenhouse, sunlight, and carbon dioxide, the growth ability of the cotton plants was enhanced. The plants currently ready for transplanting have an average leaf area, plant height, and thickness far exceeding those of Upland cotton from the United States, even though they have only been planted for a little over a month, they resemble plants that have grown for six to seven weeks.

For cotton, one of the most important indicators is sunlight. In the future, a large amount of cotton is planted in high-latitude areas, primarily due to the importance of sunlight. The length of sunlight can be divided into innate and acquired. Innate conditions refer to the latitude, where high-latitude areas naturally have longer sunlight. On the other hand, the cotton itself can shorten its growth period, allowing it to grow all its leaves faster and fully utilize the sunlight, which is also an important condition for increasing cotton yield.

Yang Yuanzhao's method avoided the cold conditions in high-latitude areas in April and May, which are not conducive to cotton growth. By growing the cotton in the greenhouse, it could grow faster and healthier. This would add two to three weeks of complete growth period, making the cotton plants grow taller and larger, with a greater leaf area, ultimately leading to a significant increase in yield.

Under Yang Yue's direction, 2,000 people carefully planted the already cultivated cotton in the soil. This process aimed to minimize human damage. Although, due to conservative considerations, they set the baseline for the germination rate at 85% and the transplanting rate at 90%, they still had 10% more plants just from the germination rate. This would provide more flexibility, and if necessary, they could replant the remaining plants in the greenhouse, which could still grow for some time.

With 2,000 people tending to 21,000 mu of land, the work was not slow, and the entire transplanting was completed in three days. Over the next week, Yang Yue closely monitored the growth of the cotton, and it was confirmed that the transplanting was a complete success, with a success rate of 96%, which, although not as high as 98% or 99% in the future, was the highest level for this era. The experienced farmers and cotton planting experts from the cotton-producing areas were even more surprised. These seedlings, which had only been growing for seven weeks, or less than two months, were almost as mature as regular cotton. How much would the yield of such tall cotton be?

The planting of cotton was temporarily concluded. The next steps involved mainly weeding, watering, and fertilizing. Cotton requires a lot of water, especially during the growth period. In the northwest, summer rains are scarce, but fortunately, the Yellow River is near Baotou, and the steam-powered water pumps were sufficient to support the growth of 21,000 mu of cotton.

However, before June, Yang Yuanzhao and his team unexpectedly welcomed their first income. It was a surprise. In the first planting of cotton, many things could not be precisely controlled, so Yang Yue left a large margin in the greenhouse planting. The germination rate was about 10%, and the transplanting rate was about 12%. Together, this added up to about a quarter of the cotton plants still in the greenhouse.

As the cotton plants grew larger, the greenhouse was no longer sufficient for their growth. Yang Yue was unsure what to do with these plants. After all, a lot of resources and labor had been invested in their cultivation, and it would be a waste to discard them. However, there was no land available in Baotou to plant these cotton plants. Even if the greenhouse was dismantled, it would be impossible to plant all 600 mu of the greenhouse in the available space. Moreover, Yang Yuanzhao wanted to use the greenhouse for other research after the cotton cultivation.

A recruited cotton planting expert, emboldened, directly approached Yang Yue about these cotton plants. It turned out that most farmers were very optimistic about this batch of cotton.

In agriculture, these experts who have been planting cotton for years have their own methods of estimating yields. Although their estimates of the total yield may not be accurate, based on the current estimates, the yield of these cotton plants would not be less than 180 pounds, a huge number, at least three times higher than the average yield.

Cotton is a valuable economic crop, and the income from planting cotton is much higher than that from planting ordinary crops. High-yield plants are always a treasure, and now, nearly 24 million well-grown cotton plants were in the greenhouse. They naturally came to ask about the price.

As long as they found land and transplanted the cotton, with a little careful management, they could harvest the cotton in about three months, with a yield three times higher than before. This was a simple calculation.

Yang Yue did not expect that these almost fully grown cotton plants could be sold. He was not familiar with business matters, but fortunately, Liu Shu was there to handle them. Liu Shu negotiated a price of 1.2 yuan for 5,000 plants.

This price was much higher than the cost of the seeds. One mu of land typically has 5,000 plants, and this cost was higher than the income from one season of grain. However, the sales were not slow. In just one week, all 24 million plants were sold out. Even more farmers came to buy, and if they held back a bit, the price would be even higher.

Holding the 6,000 yuan in revenue, all the shareholders were speechless, including Wu Guangren and Zhao Shuming, who had long been confident in Yang Yuanzhao. The input-output ratio was huge, and they saw the benefits in just two months. Even if this season's cotton was affected by natural disasters, they would not lose much money. Moreover, all the cotton planting experts favored these plants, and they would not engage in a losing business. It was foreseeable that in three months, the yield of this cotton would be even more impressive.

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