Bai Chen looked in the direction Lin Jingchen was pointing.
One of the figures really was not precise enough. Bai Chen had calculated it in his head earlier, so he quickly took out a calculator and worked it out again, refining the decimal places.
His result had not been precise enough. That was his mistake.
Bai Chen hurriedly corrected the figure, but Lin Jingchen had also said there was a problem with what he had written about phosphate fertilizer.
He stared at it for a long time and still could not see where he had gone wrong.
Applying too much phosphate fertilizer would cause crops to absorb excessive phosphorus from the soil.
Excessive phosphorus would make the crops respire too vigorously, consuming more dry matter than they accumulated. This would cause their reproductive organs to develop ahead of time, leading to premature ripening, small grains, and low yields.
That was right, wasn't it?
But this was his research project, so naturally, he had to figure it out himself. He took out his phone and looked it up.
He finally understood. Low fruit production did not necessarily mean there was a problem with the fertilizer. The soil itself might have developed a problem.
Soil acidification was also quite possible, and applying too much phosphate fertilizer could very well affect the soil's properties.
It could cause soil acidification, but Bai Chen had just recorded that the villagers generally applied phosphate fertilizer according to the recommended amounts, or even slightly less.
No matter how he looked at it, phosphate fertilizer could not be the cause. Besides, if too much had been applied, the trees would have borne fruit much earlier.
Yet that had not happened. Instead, they had been several months late.
Unless there was another possibility: something was wrong with the saplings