311 Watermelon Breeding
Although the child’s one-month-old celebration was only for the Shi family, it was very lively!
They had Amy Fruits and the child received many gifts.
Baby Gu had been receiving red packets since she was born. Every family and friend who came to see Gu Baobao for the first time would more or less give her a big red packet.
Therefore, Gu Qingming received red packets until her hands went soft.
After confinement, Gu Qingming could walk around.
Now, Gu Qingming’s life was about carrying the child every day. She walked around and looked around.
Now, her life was all about the child.
The child’s tears and laughter constantly tugged at her heart, making her feel very blissful and happy!
This child was her little angel.
Other than taking care of the child, Gu Qingming did not forget about serious matters.
The Qingming Festival had passed, and the Shi Family had truly begun to get busy planting watermelons, peanuts, sweet potatoes, and so on. Almost all the common crops in the countryside had to be planted during this season.
Because Gu Qingming had contracted more than 200 acres of land, the three uncles would plant 10 acres of watermelons. They had originally planned to plant 15 acres of watermelons and 10 acres of rice. The other 15 acres of land would be merged into the 200 acres of land to plant greenhouse rice.
The three uncles were already experienced in planting rice in the greenhouse. Coupled with the books they usually read about planting rice in the greenhouse, their direction had almost shifted to planting rice in the greenhouse.
They were more experienced in watermelon planting, so after weighing the pros and cons, they chose to do this.
There were usually two ways to grow watermelons in the countryside.
One was to plant the watermelon seeds directly in the ground and then strengthen the cultivation. Depending on the development, if there were no germinations or poor development, the seeds would be planted again.
The other method was similar to planting rice. One could first breed seedlings, transplant them into the fields, and then manage the fields.
The three uncles chose to cultivate the seedlings first. They chose to plant the well-developed watermelon seedlings in the soil in a survival of the fittest way.
In the cultivation of seedlings, the first step was to choose the best seeds that were free of pests and diseases.
Disinfect the seedlings, soak them in water at temperatures of 50 to 55 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes, or soak them in 200ml of streptomycin sulfate for two hours.
However, Shi Lichun and his brothers cultivated green plants without harm. They chose to soak the seeds in warm water to kill the poison.
Second, they must soak in the seedling. If the seed is sown directly, it will be difficult to seed.
Therefore, meticulous sowing and management, such as shallow sowing, covering the soil in stages, nutritional paper bag breeding seedlings, suitable seedling bed temperature, and adding fertilizer aqueous solution can promote watermelon seed development and seedling growth.
Third, they had to choose a good basin to serve as the seedling container. The bottom layer was padded with 6 to 8 centimeters of rice chaff; about 10 centimeters of fine sand was placed on it, and the water was poured flat.
The germinated melon seeds were laid evenly on top of the sand and covered with fine sand about 1.5 cm thick.
After the seed was sown, it was insulated and moisturized at 25 to 30 degrees.
When the sand surface began to emerge, they would spray water every two or three days, preferably in the morning on a sunny day.
Every day from 10 a. m. to 3 p. m., the straw mat was removed to let the sun shine on it, and the straw mat is kept warm at night.
After seedling, the temperature can be kept between 22 and 25 °C to manage the growth.
Once the tape leaves are unfurled, they can be planted.
The seedlings should be ventilated and cooled before planting so that the seedlings can adapt to the conditions in the field.
Shi Lichun and his brothers were very familiar with breeding seedlings and had a lot of experience.
However, this year’s watermelon seeds were given by Gu Qingming.
The seeds could not be any better. There was actually no need for so many seeds for more than ten catties of seeds.
There were thousands of seeds in a catty.
However, the three uncles planted open-air watermelons. According to their cultivation, they could only plant about 150 stalks per mu of land. This was not because it was relatively densely planted. Some families only planted about 130 stalks.
However, if he planted greenhouse watermelons, they would be planted more densely.
Shi Lichun planned to plant about 180 to 200 stalks per acre.
In Gu Qingming’s plan, she would directly use a large shed to plant watermelons and 50 to 60 acres of land.
There were four greenhouses. One greenhouse was allocated to rice, one to watermelons, and another to peanuts. The remaining greenhouse was used to mix various vegetables and other crops.
Since Gu Qingming had such plans, she naturally had a vision for the sales of these crops.
Gu Qingming planned to take the high-end sales route in the future. Gu Jianguo was also against it at first.
He felt that Gu Qingming’s actions were too risky.
As long as the items she planted with the spiritual spring water were released to the market, it would definitely attract the attention of people in the industry and even some ambitious people.
What if she was targeted by these people? What should she do?
Once they had consumed items transformed by the spiritual spring water before, one would suspect that the food they had eaten in the past was pig food.
Such a special and attractive thing would naturally attract unwanted attention.
The Gu family could only protect a small area. If it was a larger area, the Gu family would run out of steam.
However, after hearing Gu Qingming’s plan, Gu Jianguo fell silent. After thinking for a moment, he let Gu Qingming do it.
Gu Jianguo said earnestly, “Child, if you want to do it, do it. I will definitely be your strongest support!”
No matter what, he would do his best to protect his only daughter.
…
During Gu Qingming’s confinement period, her three uncles had already nurtured the watermelon seedlings.
After the Qingming Festival, the Shi family hired 30 to 40 people to work in the village.
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Work in all the greenhouses started at the same time. The salary for a day was 70 yuan, and it did not include three meals. It was eight hours a day.
They also harnessed machinery in planting crops. However, planting watermelons needed to be done manually. Therefore, planting watermelons consumed the most manpower.
The villagers were happy to plant watermelons. At the very least, if they followed Shi Lichun and his brothers to plant watermelons, they could learn a few tricks. Then, they could go home and plant their own watermelons.
Because Gao Wenwen had bought high-quality watermelons at a high price last year, many villagers were naturally tempted.
They planned to plant watermelons this year to earn more money. Then, their lives would be better and there would be more hope.
This year, many families rented out their land. Other than staying at home to look after their children, cook, and wash their clothes, they were also looking forward to earning some money from doing odd jobs to maintain their living expenses to reduce the burden on young people.
These people had been looking forward to doing odd jobs for the Shi family from the end of the year to the beginning of the year.
Now that the Shi family had finally hired, everyone was working hard.
