Chapter 60: Pre-Ordering 1000 Fruit Saplings
Chapter 60: Pre-Ordering 1000 Fruit Saplings
Lingshan County Reception House.
Deng Shirong, having just finished his meal, approached the reception house staff and said, "Excuse me, I have a question."
The staff member politely replied, "Comrade, how can I assist you?"
Deng Shirong asked, "Do you know if there are any farms nearby that grow lychees?"
It was the early 1980s, and individual lychee cultivation was still uncommon. Before coming to Lingshan County, Deng Shirong had set his sights on the state-owned farms.
The staff member smiled and said, "Of course, there's a large farm about thirty miles from here called Xinguang Farm. From what I know, they grow thousands of acres of fruit, and lychees make up at least seventy percent of their crops."
Deng Shirong's eyes lit up, and he asked, "How do I get to Xinguang Farm? Is there a bus that goes there?"
The staff member replied, "Xinguang Farm is in Luhu Commune. You can take a bus to Luhu Commune and then ask the locals for directions."
Having gotten the information he needed, Deng Shirong thanked the staff member and returned to his room to rest.
Compared to modern hotels, the hygiene conditions of this reception house were truly a far cry. The room had four beds—these days, unless you were a high-ranking official or had a lot of money, you wouldn't get a private room. Deng Shirong had arrived early, so he was the only one in the room for now. The blankets on the four beds all had a musty odor, a smell that had accumulated over years and could stick with you for a lifetime.
This was typical of the reception houses of the time. The blankets and sheets were used by countless people, and the few cents you paid for a room only guaranteed that you wouldn't be sleeping on the street. The idea of changing the sheets after each guest, as in modern hotels, was out of the question.
Back then, people often slept in their clothes, half-awake and half-asleep, especially if there were other strangers in the room. Unless they were truly exhausted, no one dared to sleep deeply.
Deng Shirong kept his money and belongings in the system space, so he wasn't worried about losing anything. However, after staying in clean and hygienic hotels in the future, it was impossible to sleep well in this poorly maintained reception house.
Fortunately, the weather was mild, and there was no need to cover himself with a blanket. Deng Shirong lay down in his clothes and spent most of the first half of the night in a semi-awake state. He was aware that other guests had entered the room, but he didn't bother to greet them and continued to sleep as he was.
By the second half of the night, he had grown accustomed to the unpleasant odors in the room and finally fell into a deep sleep.
In the morning, his biological clock woke him up on time. He washed his face, rinsed his mouth with water, checked out, and went to have breakfast. Then, he headed to the bus station to travel to Luhu Commune.
It took until two in the afternoon for Deng Shirong to finally arrive at Xinguang Farm. The transportation of this era was truly frustrating. After this experience, Deng Shirong silently vowed that unless absolutely necessary, he would avoid traveling again, at least until the transportation and accommodation conditions improved.
Fortunately, it wasn't difficult to meet with the farm leaders in those days. Deng Shirong easily arranged a meeting with the Xinguang Farm leadership.
After exchanging pleasantries, Deng Shirong got straight to the point. "Leader, I'm from Bangjie Brigade in Songshan Commune, Bobai County. I'm here to purchase some fruit saplings from your farm. Is that possible?"
The farm leader smiled and said, "Of course, comrade. What kind of fruit saplings are you interested in?"
Deng Shirong replied, "I would like to purchase a thousand Guiwei lychee saplings. Do you have them?"
The farm leader praised him, "You have excellent taste, comrade. Our best fruit trees are the Guiwei lychees. While we don't have a thousand saplings ready now, we can start propagating them through air layering. They should be ready for planting by early spring next year."
There are three methods of propagating lychees: seed sowing, air layering, and grafting.
These techniques have been used from ancient times to the present, from China to the world.
Seed sowing involves planting the lychee seed after eating the fruit. If it germinates and grows normally, it can develop into a lychee tree. This method, using lychee seeds, is the most traditional and oldest propagation method, widely used in rural areas in ancient times.
Using this method to propagate lychees has several advantages: it's convenient, easy, and can be done anytime as long as you have soil. However, the main drawback is the long growth cycle. From sowing the seeds to the tree reaching its peak fruiting period, it typically takes more than ten years.
According to the "Lychee Annals," ancient people designated lychees propagated this way as "one-year-old" when they began to bear fruit, which means it took about 12 years. Some varieties might even take longer.
Seeds planted from lychees can easily mutate due to different climate conditions and soil fertility, leading to the creation of new varieties with fruits that differ from the parent tree. For example, if you plant seeds from the Guiwei or Feizixiao varieties today, the fruits produced by the tree ten years later might be a new type of Guiwei or Feizixiao, potentially of higher or lower quality.
This characteristic has led to the rich diversity of lychee varieties in China. According to the 1996 edition of the "Chinese Fruit Tree Annals," there are 208 lychee varieties in China, with 83 in Guangdong, 50 in Guangxi, 58 in Fujian, and 17 in Sichuan, Hainan, and Taiwan.
The air-layering propagation technique involves selecting a healthy branch from a fruit-bearing lychee tree, removing a 2-centimeter strip of bark around the branch, and then wrapping the exposed area with a nutrient-rich, moist clay. The outside is then covered with straw or plastic film to retain moisture.
After 1-2 months, roots will begin to grow from the stripped area. Once 2-3 sets of roots have developed, the branch, along with the clay, can be cut off and transplanted. Experienced fruit farmers often "pre-plant" the cut branch in a cool, shaded area to encourage more root growth and the development of additional leaves before final transplantation, which increases the survival rate and accelerates later growth.
The exact origin of the air-layering technique is unknown, but observations of old lychee trees in Lingshan County, Guangxi, suggest that this technique has been in use for at least 1,000 years. The roots extending from the base of these trees provide evidence of this.
This air-layering technique is somewhat similar to the method of creating humans described in the Bible. Just as Adam created Eve from one of his ribs, air-layering involves selecting a branch from the parent tree to grow roots and develop into a new lychee sapling.
The air-layering technique has two main advantages:
1. If the selected branch is large and healthy, the sapling can bear fruit in its second year after planting.
2. Since the new sapling is a branch from the parent tree, it can maintain the pure characteristics of the original variety, ensuring consistency regardless of where it is propagated.
The only drawback is that you cannot air-layer too many branches from the same tree, as it can damage the tree and affect its fruiting.
Grafting propagation involves planting lychee seeds from varieties that are well-adapted to local conditions and have strong drought, cold, and disease resistance. The resulting saplings are used as rootstocks, onto which buds from other high-quality lychee varieties are grafted.
Grafting combines the survival advantages of the rootstock with the fruiting advantages of the grafted bud, achieving a complementary effect.
To summarize the three lychee propagation techniques:
- Seed Propagation: While convenient and easy, it has the longest growth cycle and is prone to mutations.
- Air-Layering: This method maintains the purest genetic traits, allows for faster growth and fruiting, and is effective for preserving high-quality varieties. However, it lacks a strong main root, making it less resilient.
- Grafting: This technique can produce saplings in bulk, combining the survival advantages of the rootstock with the fruiting advantages of the grafted bud. However, it is less pure than air-layering.
Deng Shirong was familiar with all three techniques. For his purposes, he chose air-layering first, as it best preserves the purity of the variety.
Additionally, his family had just received their share of the mountain, which would take some time to develop. The farm leader's suggestion aligned perfectly with his plans.
Thus, Deng Shirong nodded in agreement, discussed the price of the saplings with the farm leader, signed the purchase contract, and paid a 30% deposit.
(End of Chapter)
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