In September, the seed watermelons were ready for harvest, and people began coming to the Purchasing Station to sell their watermelon seeds.
Gu Boyuan asked Li Long about the purchase price over dinner. Li Long told him that this year, unflattened watermelon seeds would fetch one yuan fifty, and flattened ones two yuan.
Gu Boyuan bought at those prices, though he applied the standards flexibly. Seeds that had been cleaned particularly well might fetch eight or ten fen more, while those that were not so clean and contained more impurities would fetch less.
By nearly the end of September, they had bought close to fifty tonnes of watermelon seeds. It was less than last year, but Li Long thought it was a suitable amount.
They had bought so much last year because prices the year before had been good. Prices of three yuan or three yuan fifty had driven plenty of people wild. One mu of seed watermelons earned more than ten mu of wheat-who wouldn't want to grow them? Even on poor land, with a smaller harvest, even half a harvest, it still paid better than grain.
That was why so much had been planted last year, and so much harvested.
But prices had suddenly dropped last year. Honestly, if Li Long had not kept buying, plenty of people would have been stuck with watermelon seeds they could not sell.
At a little over one yuan, the price was not nearly so attractive compared with grain and other cash crops.
So the area planted with seed watermelons had shrunk considerably this year. In the Fourth Team alone, it had fallen by more than half.
Most people had switched back to grain and cash crops such as flower sunflowers and sugar beets.
The prices might not be high, but at