Chapter 126 (continued)

There was a mountain spring right next to the orchard, so the owner who sold them the mulberry trees looked at them with great curiosity. "What kind of precious fertilizer is this? And you've come all this way?"

Qing Mengzhu joked, "You already said it's precious fertilizer, how could I possibly tell you?"

The boss laughed heartily, "That's true. Every family has its own secret planting method, I know that."

Their fertilizer wasn't anything particularly special; it was just a slightly modified formula. Besides adding effective microorganisms, they also added a little bit of fermented fertilizer made from fertilizer fermentation powder, the kind containing Spirit Pearl Dregs.

It's a very small amount; about 10 kilograms of fermented fertilizer were used to make up 10,000 kilograms of fertilizer.

Qing Mengzhu hopes that this fertilizer will make the mulberry trees in the orchard different from other mulberry trees, and that the mulberries will have a special flavor, forming a unique feature of their company.

Once the mulberries are planted and the monitoring system is installed, there's not much work to do; you just need to check on them every few days.

However, the entire orchard covers more than 80 acres, but they have only planted 20 acres, leaving more than 60 acres to be planted.

Zhao Hexi held a meeting with Qing Mengzhu and Ming Chunxi: "What should we plant on the remaining sixty-odd mu of land? Let's take advantage of the free time now and plant them together?"

Qing Mengzhu: "I don't have any ideas right now, what about you guys?"

Ming Chunxi shook her head. "I don't have any either."

Zhao Hexi: "Don't look at me! What ideas could I possibly have? I'm not familiar with farming."

Qing Mengzhu: "Let's put it aside for now, and plant it when we think of something. There's no rush. Anyway, we can choose watermelons, cantaloupes, and the like for the autumn fruits delivered to members, so we can just plant them in the field later."

Hearing this Zhao Hexi said, "Then there's no rush. Could you come with me to inspect the fields these next couple of days? I feel our vegetable garden has changed quite a bit; I need you to see for yourself and give us your feedback."

Qing Mengzhu: "No problem, we'll go on the inspection tomorrow."

After confirming the work plan with him, Zhao Hexi closed the folder with satisfaction and asked, "What kind of seedlings are you growing in the yard?"

Qing Mengzhu glanced into the courtyard. "Just mulberry saplings."

The mulberry saplings that Qing Mengzhu was growing in the courtyard were seeds bought from the Interstellar Mall. Thirty seeds cost eighty Star Coins, and the variety was "Black Mulberry" from the cultivation world, with a quality rating of "Fine Grade+".

The reason why the company's orchard does not grow this "Black Mulberry" is that crops of "Fine Grade" quality or above in the Interstellar Mall require some special fertilizers or maintenance methods.

They spend so much energy and Star Coins taking care of the company's seedlings, buying such expensive seedlings, only to add them to a vegetable package that earns them two thousand a month. It's not worth it.

Furthermore, mulberry trees take three to five years to bear fruit after being planted from seed, and they don't have that much time.

As for the fruit trees planted on their own mountain, that's something they can plan out carefully.

Anyway, it's only thirty trees, so managing them won't be too much trouble. We can just plant them next to the plum grove.

The plum trees on Qing Mengzhu's family mountain are of sentimental value because they were planted by her grandparents. When Qing Mengzhu planted bamboo, she didn't cut down the plum trees there, so it's perfect to plant mulberry trees there now.

Since they're all on the sunny side anyway, it's perfect for mulberry trees to grow.

The next day, Qing Mengzhu and Zhao Hexi rode in a four-wheeled electric vehicle to inspect the fields their company had rented.

All the vegetables grown in the fields need to be sold, and to facilitate transportation, they specially left a relatively wide road, which is now just right for driving four-wheeled electric vehicles.

Zhao Hexi pointed out the various lush green vegetable seedlings to Qing Mengzhu: "The seedlings have mostly sprouted now, especially the cabbage and shepherd's purse seedlings, which are growing particularly well. I'm a little worried that they'll be too old before March."

Qing Mengzhu: "It's alright. If all else fails, we can pickle it into sauerkraut and then replant a batch along the way."

Zhao Hexi slapped his thigh. "I completely forgot we could have a company manufacture the vegetables. I'll write it down in my notes. Later, we can consider adding pickled vegetables to the vegetable packs, so customers can choose for themselves."

Seeing him so engrossed in company matters, Qing Mengzhu, "It's alright, I've planned everything out. I'm keeping an eye on the progress here, and I'll remind you if there are any problems. Don't worry too much."

Zhao Hexi: "I feel much more at ease now. Let's go over there and look at the lotus roots."

This year's lotus roots were grown from lotus seeds, which is completely different from lotus roots grown from lotus seeds.

Although they were planted only recently, round, tender lotus leaves have already sprouted in the field.

Qing Mengzhu's family had a limited supply of lotus root seeds. Only one pond was planted with their own lotus root seeds, while the other seven ponds were planted with robust local lotus roots. The lotus root seeds were high-quality seeds purchased from Ji Qinglin, which cost a considerable amount of money.

However, upon closer inspection, the lotus roots grown by Qing Mengzhu's family have grown exceptionally many lotus leaves, making the entire pond appear exceptionally green, forming a stark contrast with the other ponds. At first glance, it's hard to believe that they were all planted at the same time.

Zhao Hexi remarked, "That's why I say your crops are so good! When we planted the lotus seeds, the two batches didn't look that different."

Qing Mengzhu: "It's probably because the lotus roots in my house accumulate more nutrients, so they grow faster. Wait a moment, I'll take a picture."

Zhao Hexi: "I'll take a picture too, and put it in a folder for future reference."

The two of them took some photos of the pond.

After taking the photos, Qing Mengzhu checked the water level in the pond and said, "We can drain a little water these next couple of days."

To prevent the lotus leaves from being submerged, the water level in their pond was very low, basically just a thin layer of silt.

Zhao Hexi took notes. "Okay, about how many centimeters of water?"

Qing Mengzhu: "Let's put in five centimeters first, and add more if it's not enough."

After looking at the pond, they moved on to looking at the other dishes.

When Qing Mengzhu arrived at the pea field, she found that the peas were growing very well, with the seedlings already nearly thirty centimeters tall.

He said, "The peas are almost ready for trellises. They need to be finished by Friday, otherwise it will affect their growth."

Zhao Hexi also wrote it down, "Got it. Just build a bamboo frame?"

Qing Mengzhu: "Yes, let's go outside and buy some bamboo. We probably won't be able to use the bamboo from our house for building this."

Zhao Hexi smiled and said, "Of course. Your bamboo is so expensive, even if the company is yours, we can't possibly buy bamboo from you. Speaking of which, don't the tomatoes need trellises too? Should we buy bamboo at the same time?"

Qing Mengzhu: "Buy. Just pile the extra bamboo along the edge of the field; it's so cold, it won't rot anytime soon."

Zhao Hexi: "Okay, I'll add buying bamboo to my schedule too."

They drove around the fields, observing and recording various details.

Qing Mengzhu discovered that, possibly due to the winter season, this batch of crops encountered very few insects and were basically unharmed by them.

If things continue like this, they won't need to spray pesticides anymore.

However, perhaps because of the abundance of fertilizer in the ground, grass sprouted and grew unusually robustly, completely unlike the wild grass that withers in winter.

They need to arrange for machinery to come and weed in the next few days, otherwise the weeds will definitely overwhelm the vegetables.

It's a mixed bag of good and bad news.

Four hundred and fifty acres is actually quite a lot of land, and they spent the whole morning working in the fields.

At noon, Zhao Hexi went to Qing Mengzhu's house for a free meal.

Ordering takeout in the village is inconvenient; it's always the same few restaurants, Zhao Hexi is tired of them. She might as well go with Qing Mengzhu for a home-cooked meal, at least it will be more comfortable to eat there.

Ming Chunxi wasn't home, and the weather was cold, Qing Mengzhu was too lazy to cook and just made some tomato and duck egg noodles.

The duck eggs were laid by their own ducks before. With the weather getting colder, neither hazel grouse, ducks, nor geese tend to lay eggs anymore.

Now, besides eating their previous stock, Qing Mengzhu's family buys free-range eggs from Qing Changhong's family.

Qing Changhong's free-range eggs are a bit pricey, but they taste really good. If it weren't for their good relationship, I might not have been able to buy them.