Chapter 1106: Planting Potatoes

At two in the afternoon, Xia Qing arrived at the Ninth Center. According to the work schedule, the Ninth Center was to plant potatoes in four greenhouses that afternoon.

The Ninth Center had decided to plant potatoes earlier than the lords. The reason was that their top leader, Xia Qing, had cultivated potato seed stock with a harmful-element content of 5.5–8.5‰ within her own territory, suitable for use as seed potatoes.

In July of this year, Xia Qing harvested a total of 5,715 jin of potatoes. She exchanged the 2,000 jin harvested from the terraced fields, with a harmful-element content of 6.5–8.5‰, to the Ninth Center to serve as seed potatoes for the autumn planting.

The 2,615 jin of potatoes harvested from the cultivated land, whose harmful-element content had already reached 13‰ and could no longer be replanted, were also sent by her to the Ninth Center to add to the staff's meals.

Of course, these more than four thousand jin of potatoes were not given away for free; they were returned to the Ninth Center at market price following the formal procurement procedure.

In early July, the vegetables in the Ninth Center's greenhouses had not yet grown enough to meet the staff's dining needs, so vegetables had to be purchased from the lords.

Now it was September. The Ninth Center had already reclaimed more than 400 mu of land, where the corn and rice were growing vigorously. The vegetables produced not only satisfied the internal staff's consumption needs but could also be sent by the cartload to the Safe Zone Food Processing Center.

The Processing Center would produce rations with higher nutritional content, improving the dietary quality of the Safe Zone's people.

The potatoes Xia Qing harvested in July had already passed their 50-day dormancy period. After sprouting, cutting into pieces, and sterilization, they could be planted that afternoon.

The early-maturing peas in greenhouses 3–6 of the Ninth Center, which had been used for potato cultivation, had already been harvested. The fields had been re-fertilized, irrigated, and plowed. Standing in the greenhouse now, breathing in the fresh scent of the soil, looking at the level fields and the straight ridges, the farmers felt incomparably refreshed and full of hope.

Technical instructor Zhang Tao inspected the potato seed and confirmed it could be planted. Then Mao Chuntai, with the planting department's staff, wearing solemn expressions, planted the cut potato pieces into the fertile, loose soil with the eyes facing upward.

Every employee knew that this batch of potato seed was a premium variety that Director Xia had painstakingly cultivated in her territory using high-yi-element soil. Its harmful-element content was nearly two percentage points lower than the potato seed sold by the Safe Zone's Planting Management Department and Territory Management Department.

Such premium potato seed simply couldn't be snatched up on the market!

The employees also knew that, with proper management and no accidental disasters, these four greenhouses could harvest 40,000 jin of potatoes before the harmful snow.

Food was extremely scarce during the years of natural disaster, and human survivors who had known hunger could not help but feel their hearts surge at hearing that number alone. So every one of these potato pieces was a treasure—their very eyeballs, their very lives!

Xia Qing, the most experienced potato grower, patrolled and checked everyone's planting spacing, row spacing, and depth. When her patrol reached greenhouse six, the one-eyed team leader in charge of greenhouse six asked, "Director, should we buy Hui-4 potato-specific fertilizer?"

Xia Qing didn't beat around the bush and gave a clear answer: "With our current fertilization and management methods, our potatoes can reach a per-mu yield of 10,000 jin. There's no need to apply special fertilizer to force higher production."

This team leader had been a mechanized infantryman before retirement. Though he was strong, he had never farmed and still didn't quite understand: "Director, 10,000 jin is certainly a lot, but wouldn't it be a good thing if we could increase the yield?"

With food so scarce now, producing even one more jin was a good thing.

Xia Qing explained in detail: "I couldn't find a stability test announcement for Hui-4 potato-specific fertilizer on the Ministry of Agriculture's website, which means the stability of this fertilizer still needs to be verified. Our potatoes have an aggressive harmful-evolution rate as high as 5%, and most of them have a stability of less than two generations. If we apply a high-efficiency formula fertilizer whose stability isn't guaranteed, even if we succeed in forcing higher production, it will lead to a decline in potato quality, or even a red light."

Beyond this reason, Xia Qing had other considerations: "Furthermore, high-yield crops need to absorb more nutrients and water than ordinary crops, accelerating the depletion of soil nutrients. After this crop yields 10,000 jin of potatoes per mu, we'll need to rotate in other medium-yield crops to let the land recover. In the long run, forcing higher production doesn't bring much benefit."

At this, the team leader and employees in the greenhouse all understood and nodded repeatedly.

As everyone continued working, Zhang Tao, who had just finished instructing the employees on how to cover the soil and spray-irrigate, walked over and made small talk with Xia Qing.

"What you said just now was spot on. The current natural climate and plant characteristics are different from before the years of natural disaster. Increasing yield is important, but stability is even more important. We can't artificially undermine the plants' stability just to increase yield and raise planting risks. At this stage, the focus of potato planting research isn't on increasing yield, but on improving quality."

Xia Qing took the opportunity to ask for guidance: "Our potatoes' stability is too poor. Tao-jie, in your opinion, what aspect should we tackle next?"

Zhang Tao offered her an improvement idea: "The Ninth Center doesn't have high-yi-element soil. To cultivate high-quality, high-stability seed potatoes, we have to rely on two things: the standard greenhouses in Territory Seven, and the premium terraced fields in your territory. You've already done the best you can with water-quality control. For the next crop, you could try using green-light cow manure as base fertilizer. Cow manure is a slow-release fertilizer and is more suitable as base fertilizer for potatoes than chicken manure."

To keep Territory Three's greatest secret from leaking, the batch of seed potatoes Xia Qing sent to the Ninth Center, although harvested from the high-yi-element terraced fields, had not been irrigated with the unpolluted spring water, but with filtered water instead.

Only the optimized strains selected at the seedling stage were irrigated throughout their growth in the terraced fields with the unpolluted spring water. Of course, the potatoes grown from these optimized plants were all properly stored in Xia Qing's underground storage room at this moment, and would only be taken out for planting next spring.

Xia Qing now had cattle, so she had one more type of premium fertilizer available: "In your opinion, how much cow manure per mu is appropriate for planting potatoes?"

The more Zhang Tao interacted with Xia Qing, the more she understood why Zhang San—petty and disliking dealing with people—had such a high tolerance for Xia Qing and was willing to take time and energy to cultivate her.

Although Xia Qing's basic knowledge was rather poor, she devoted herself wholeheartedly to farming, could endure loneliness, wasn't afraid of hardship, and was willing to put in the work on breeding. What was even rarer was that, although she was now a dual-system advanced evolver and one of Hui-3 Base's top snipers, she hadn't gotten a big head at all. She still farmed exactly as she always had, and was still able to listen to others' suggestions.

Having a manager like this was the Ninth Center's good fortune.

Like Zhang Song, Zhang Tao also enjoyed working with Xia Qing. So whatever Xia Qing asked her about, she would pass on without reservation. Because Zhang Tao also hoped she could put down roots in this territory and do her research here for a long, long time, in peace and security.

Just as Zhang Tao was telling Xia Qing about the nutrient elements potatoes needed to be supplemented with at each stage of growth, the walkie-talkie hanging on Xia Qing's chest sounded: "Director, Young Mr. Yu from the Chonglian Group is outside the center's south gate and wants to come in to visit you."

Xia Qing pressed the walkie-talkie button with a calm expression: "Please escort him to my office."