After the frost, the weather becomes colder and it’s time to cultivate potato seeds.
The Song family moved all the potatoes out of the dry cellar and prepared to transport them to a newly purchased farm and plant them directly in the field.
After learning of their plan, Song Xixi hurriedly stopped them: "With this planting method, more than a thousand kilograms of potatoes may not even be able to grow two acres of land."
Song Wufu explained: "This thing grows wild, and our family doesn't know how to grow it. We can only plant it whole first, and then explore better and more cost-effective planting methods later."
Song Xixi knew it, but couldn't say it directly: "Sweet potatoes are planted first to raise seedlings. When the sweet potato vines grow long enough, they are cut and inserted into the ground. In this way, one sweet potato vine can grow several nests of sweet potatoes. Are these potatoes the same?
Is it possible to do this?"
Zhang Xiaomei said with a smile: "You girl, are you stupid? When we dug potatoes before, the ones growing outside were not vines. The cutting method will definitely not work."
Fortunately, Song Xixi was prepared. She squatted down and rummaged through the potatoes. In fact, she took out the potatoes that had been cultivated in advance and were covered with purple buds from the system warehouse, pretending to find them from the potatoes:
"Grandpa and grandma, look, this potato has sprouted. There are five or six sprout eyes on it. Is it possible that each sprout eye can grow a nest of potatoes?"
Upon hearing this, the old couple quickly took the sprouted potatoes and looked at them carefully: "Really, there are sprouts growing in every sunken place!"
Song Jin, Song Yin, and the others also hurriedly rummaged through the pile of potatoes, and unexpectedly found a few potatoes that had just sprouted teeth. It was obviously the potato planting season, and these potatoes had sprouted on their own in accordance with the season.
If the Song family hadn't taken them out of the cellar, I'm afraid all the potatoes would have sprouted in a few days.
Of course, sprouted potatoes are poisonous and cannot be eaten.
Looking at the sprouted potatoes on the table, Song Wufu couldn't make up his mind: "The weather is so cold, can it really survive if we just cut off the sprout eyes and plant them? This is the only potato we have in our family, so it's better to play it safe."
Song Xixi understood the old man's concerns and suggested: "It's only a few days away. Why not cut off the buds of these potatoes and plant them in the soil. If they can survive, it means that the method of cutting the buds for planting is feasible."
Song Wufu silently calculated the time and determined that delaying it for a few days would have little impact. He decisively agreed to the proposal: "Okay, let's go dig some good soil in the ground and cut these potatoes and plant them!"
Song Xixi breathed a sigh of relief and volunteered to run to the kitchen to get a kitchen knife. In a few strokes, she cut off all the sprouts of several potatoes and wrapped them in plant ash.
The Song family just went ahead and quickly picked up two baskets of soft soil from the ground behind the house and piled them in a sunny corner.
Song Xixi had experience in growing potatoes. She dug out small holes neatly and planted more than a dozen cut potatoes with sprouts. She even borrowed a bundle of straw from the Lu family to spread them over, giving this small piece of "
"Experimental Field" Insulation.
In the past two years, she has been planting vegetables frequently. Seeing her skillful movements, the Song family didn't think much about it.
In the next few days, Song Xixi calmly waited for the potato sprouts to take root and come out of the ground.
The others couldn't calm down anymore. They would go to the "test field" twice a day, morning and evening, lift a corner of the straw and stare at it, as if they could sting the seedlings out.
I don't know whether it was because of good insulation or because the temperature and humidity were just right for the potatoes. In just six days, the potato sprouts came out of the ground, revealing a lovely green color.
"Alive, alive, great, great!"
Song Wufu jumped up excitedly, with a big smile on his black and red face: "Now more than a thousand kilograms of potatoes can be used to plant several acres of land!"
Zhang Xiaomei praised her granddaughter: "You are so good at being a good boy. You can immediately see that potatoes can be cut and planted. Otherwise, most of the only potatoes you have will be wasted!"
Song Xixi said modestly: "No, no, I just had a sudden idea. My grandparents are more discerning and willing to let me do this."
Zhang Xiaomei smiled happily: "So, Guobao followed grandma."
Song Xixi responded obediently: "Well, I just followed grandma."
After the planting test was successful, the Song family no longer delayed. They piled all the potato seeds in the corner, covered them with a thin layer of soil, borrowed several bundles of straw to cover them, and sprinkled water every day to induce germination.
Most of these potatoes sprouted within a few days. With the efforts of the Song family, all the potatoes sprouted in just three days, and the sprouts that sprouted first grew longer and longer.
After all the potato seeds were dug out, the Song family carefully cut off the sprouts of the potatoes and planted them in the fields prepared in advance that day.
These more than 1,000 kilograms of potatoes were planted on four acres of land.
As long as there is a good potato harvest next year, it will not be a problem to plant potato seeds harvested on four acres of land on twenty or thirty acres of land.
All the villagers in Songjiaao know that the Song family has potatoes, and they all come over to watch when the Song family is planting potatoes.
When several old farmers saw the potatoes being cut into pieces, they all blushed with anxiety and cursed Song Wufu for his nonsense and ruining the good potato cultivation.
Song Wufu was not angry and took them directly to his yard and showed them all the potato seedlings unearthed in the "experimental field".
The old friends were speechless. They just kept mumbling on the way home, wondering how they could grow potatoes like this.
The four acres of potatoes planted took root and sprouted smoothly under the careful care of the Song family.
These four acres of potato land are not only the hard work of the Song family, but also the treasure of the entire Song family'ao.
The villagers all know that once the potatoes are successfully grown, every household will have another kind of food on the table.
In this way, potatoes will be promoted sooner or later, and then they will be able to buy potato seeds from the Song family and sell the grown potato seeds elsewhere to make a fortune.
Therefore, no one in the village wanted to cause trouble, and strictly prohibited their children from causing trouble in the potato fields. When they saw the Song family watering the potatoes, they would spontaneously carry their own buckets to help.
The weather became colder day by day, and when the potato seedlings grew to half a foot high, Song Xixi's injuries were all healed, and he got up early every day and went to the back mountain to practice martial arts as before.
He Hong only teaches for half a day, in the morning if there is nothing to do, and in the afternoon if there is something wrong.
For the rest of the time, Song Xixi made her own arrangements, studying and practicing martial arts. However, the next day He Hong checked what she had learned the day before. If she failed his test or made mistakes during sword practice, her face would be upset.
The elder.
After several experiences, Song Xixi learned his lesson. After practicing martial arts every day when he returned home, he would either practice swordsmanship for an hour or basic skills for an hour, trying to make He Hong unable to find any faults.