Chapter 237

They've been too busy lately; the wedding will be held in the fall or winter.

Qing Mengzhu noticed Ming Chunxi's gaze and wagged her finger. "Okay, I also want to go snorkeling."

Ming Chunxi smiled and said, "Then let's go."

Chapter 237

Qing Mengzhu and the others hadn't been to this orchard in Qiongwei City for a while. When they came to check, the fruit trees in the orchard were growing even better.

The entire orchard is now lush and green, beautiful and vibrant.

Qing Mengzhu walked through the orchard, she said to Ming Chunxi, "The trees are growing really fast."

Ming Chunxi: "The main branches and leaves grow quickly; in just a few months, they can grow from a bare state into a graceful, canopy-like shape."

Qing Mengzhu: "That's true."

The two men came over and first inspected the orchard.

For the past six months, Qiongwei and her team have been working on improving the orchard's infrastructure. Now, there are several more ditches in the orchard, and the sprinkler irrigation system is also very complete.

The two inspected the orchard, mainly checking the soil, water source, and weeds.

After walking around the orchard for a while, Qing Mengzhu squatted down to examine the soil under the durian trees and said, "The durian trees are growing too fast, and the soil isn't fertile enough."

Ming Chunxi squatted down beside him. "So, do we need to bring fertilizer over to bury it?"

Qing Mengzhu rubbed some soil between her fingers. "Almost there. The durians are about to bear fruit, so we need better fertilizer. We should just bring over that batch of fermented cow dung we have now."

Ming Chunxi: "I'll call He Xi and ask him to arrange for a truck to deliver the fertilizer."

Qing Mengzhu: "Let him transport more. It's okay if he can't use it all right away; he can just leave it here for now."

After inspecting the soil, they went up to the top of the orchard to look at the water storage pond.

Qing Mengzhu had previously put Spirit Pearl Dregs in the reservoir. Perhaps because the orchard uses a lot of water, some staff members reported that the water in the reservoir was not as good as before.

Human intuition is generally accurate, Qing Mengzhu's inclination is that the Spirit Pearl Dregs might indeed have lost its effectiveness.

When the two arrived at the reservoir, Qing Mengzhu glanced at it and immediately confirmed, "The Spirit Pearl Dregs really is ineffective; it's being used up much faster than the Spirit Pearl Dregs in the lotus pond."

Ming Chunxi: "Should we buy an extra pack this time and put it in?"

Qing Mengzhu: "Put them in, 999 Star Coins per pack, two or three more packs are fine too."

This amount of Star Coins is nothing to them now.

Qing Mengzhu placed two packets of Spirit Pearl Dregs in each reservoir, and even mixed the Spirit Pearl Dregs with the sand at the bottom of the reservoir to ensure that ordinary people could not scoop Spirit Pearl Dregs away.

After touring the orchard and gaining a general understanding of it, the two began thinning the durian flowers.

Due to the different climate, durians in Qiongwei City bloom twice a year, usually in early spring and early autumn, and can also produce two crops of fruit.

Their durians probably bloomed later than usual because they were transplanted less than a year ago; they started blooming in May and are now in full bloom.

Qing Mengzhu held the flower in her hand to check its condition and decided to preserve this batch of fruit this year. She decided to cut off the batch of flowers that bloomed in the fall and then see how things went next year to decide whether to preserve one or two batches of fruit.

As Intermediate Grower, Qing Mengzhu's planting skills are excellent. Even though durian is a crop he is not very familiar with, he can clearly distinguish its condition.

Qing Mengzhu could easily tell which flowers were blooming well, which flowers were in good positions, which flowers to keep on a tree, and which flowers to prune.

Others don't have this ability, which is why Ping Lin and the others were somewhat helpless with the durian flower, so they specifically asked him to take a look at the flower.

Ming Chunxi couldn't tell the quality of the flowers either, so he carried a ladder and accompanied Qing Mengzhu to sort the flowers.

Their durian trees hadn't been transplanted long enough to fully recover, so Qing Mengzhu didn't allow the durians to bear much fruit, leaving only twenty or thirty flowers on each tree.

A safer approach would be to leave more flowers and then thin out the fruit once it has formed.

Qing Mengzhu had good planting skills and was confident in her abilities, so she simply went all the way and cut off all the flowers that needed to be cut.

While cutting flowers, Qing Mengzhu also took a calligraphy brush and used it to pollinate the durian flowers.

The pistils and stamens of a durian mature at different times, making self-pollination difficult; cross-pollination is generally required.

Artificial pollination can increase durian yield, producing more "returning" durians.

Carrying a ladder and slowly pruning and pollinating the flowers was too tiring, so Qing Mengzhu only managed to do it for half a morning.

Halfway through the morning, he still took out his bamboo pole with a V-shaped blade and went to cut flowers with Ming Chunxi.

He and Ming Chunxi took turns. When he got tired, he would hand the bamboo pole to Ming Chunxi and direct the work himself.

Ping Lin laughed, "Boss, you guys didn't last long enough."

Qing Mengzhu hugged a large coconut and drank the coconut juice inside. "It's so hot and tiring, I really can't keep going. That's enough for now. You can find someone else to do the pollination and stuff."

Ping Lin: "I'll find workers to do it this morning."

Most durian trees bloom at night, so pollination in the morning is more scientifically sound.

Qing Mengzhu nodded. "Let me plan it out. We can plant some nectar-producing plants to see if we can attract nocturnal insects to pollinate the durians, as a supplement."

Ping Lin: "Nocturnal insects, like hawk moths?"

Qing Mengzhu also knew a bit about insects. "Pretty much, mostly moths. Actually, besides moths, you can also look for fruit bats. I was looking at some information the other day, and it said that there are quite a few fruit bats in Qiongwei City."

Ping Lin: "There are indeed a lot of them. I've seen them several times. I was thinking about whether I should deal with them to prevent them from ruining the fruit when we have more."

Qing Mengzhu: "Our fruit hasn't reached its peak production season yet. Let's wait until then. We can put up anti-bat nets and install sound and light repellent devices; the amount of damaged fruit shouldn't be too great."

Qing Mengzhu originally planned to stay in the orchard for about a week.

Unexpectedly, a powerful typhoon named Noel formed at sea during the two days they were supposed to return, with winds expected to reach force 14 or 15.

Although "Noel" will not pass directly over Qiongwei City, they have never encountered such a strong typhoon since they started planting fruit trees here. Everyone is unsure and worried that the typhoon will cause huge damage to the orchard, which would be difficult to explain.

Ping Lin requested that Qing Mengzhu stay a few more days to provide guidance.

Qing Mengzhu was also unsure, so she stayed.

Ming Chunxi has now started his own company and doesn't need to work a regular job anymore, so he's also staying here to work remotely.

Zhao Hexi and the others were somewhat worried after hearing this in Vine City. However, since it was the first time the orchard had faced such a large typhoon, they did need to keep an eye on it.

When the typhoon made landfall, Zhao Hexi called Ming Chunxi to inquire about the situation, "Mengzhu, is it safe over there?"

Qing Mengzhu glanced out the window; the trees outside were swaying wildly in the typhoon. "It's alright. We're staying indoors and haven't gone outside, so there shouldn't be any major problems."

Zhao Hexi was worried. "Don't go out when it's windy. We can talk about it after the wind dies down."

Qing Mengzhu: "It's nothing to begin with. We even put bags on the flowers, so there shouldn't be any problems."

Zhao Hexi: "What about the coffee tree? Coffee trees are so small, won't they get blown down?"

Qing Mengzhu: "No, coffee trees are small and their branches are flexible, so they are less affected by typhoons."

Zhao Hexi chatted for a few minutes, and after clarifying the situation, they quickly hung up, saying it wasn't safe to make a phone call on a windy day.

Qing Mengzhu and Ming Chunxi stayed in the orchard.

Their windows are made of brick, which is quite wind-resistant, and so far they haven't been affected much.

However, he spoke too soon. In the evening, when the wind was blowing the hardest, the power went out, and the rain pounded down, making a loud noise as if someone was banging on the door.

Qing Mengzhu quickly pulled Ming Chunxi up, put on a raincoat, and took a flashlight to patrol the residential area.

There are quite a few people living here, so they still need to keep an eye on them; otherwise, if something happens, it will be their responsibility.