After more than three months of training last year, the group of young people who came to study at Zhuangzi reached a consensus.
Learning about farming is not an easy task, and learning Qiao Lan’s breeding skills is even more difficult.
Tall buildings need to lay a solid foundation, and what Qiao Lan is teaching them now is to lay the foundation.
So each of them had already prepared in their hearts, thinking that it would take two or three years of training before they could learn the real skills from the teacher.
But these people never imagined that as soon as this winter passed, my husband would change.
In the first class this spring, Qiao Lan didn't ask them to do anything but wait in the courtyard.
After a while, a row of boys brought a pile of stone mortars, one for each person, and placed them in front of them.
Everyone looked at the stone mortar, a little confused. What did they ask them to do?
The boy behind him quickly revealed the answer, which was two large baskets of dried lilies.
Is adding dried lily in a stone mortar to pound lily into powder?
Could it be that someone was sick and asked them to make medicine? The gentleman didn't look sick. Could it be that he was an animal on Zhuangzi's farm?
Everyone suppressed the doubts in their hearts and did not speak, waiting for Qiao Lan's instructions.
They have already suffered a lot in speaking first.
Seeing that everything was ready, Qiao Lan said, "Use the stone mortar above to grind all the lilies into powder! This year I will teach you how to breed. Please be more serious about each one. Don't be lazy."
Heard about breeding?
Everyone's eyes widened immediately!
What does breeding have to do with lilies? Is it Mr.’s secret recipe?
Regardless of whether it was a secret recipe or not, they still made it.
One by one, they picked up the stone mortar, put a bamboo stool under their buttocks, and started working enthusiastically.
Seeing how hard they were working, Qiao Lan didn't bother them. She left the yard and continued to order her servants to prepare other things.
Ethanol is just a better solution for extracting colchicine, water will also work, although the effect will be less effective.
But after the family knows the recipe for making ethanol, they will stockpile grain to make wine. The environment in the next few years will not be optimistic. Food is crucial, and making wine is a complete waste.
After Qiao Lan handed over the prescription, everything was no longer up to her, and she might not listen even if she tried to persuade her.
So Qiao Lan settled for the next best thing, water.
After everyone ground the lily into powder, Qiao Lan asked them to put the dry powder into the pot.
Qiao Lan also specially bought a dozen huge stone pots for them to use in experiments. Of course, this will be deducted from the tuition.
The melting point of colchicine is around 140 degrees, so boiling it in water will have little effect.
Pots of lily powder were poured into the pot, and everyone started stirring with wooden sticks.
What he did really made them a little confused, and they even suspected that they were making soup!
Maybe Qiao Lan saw the confusion in their eyes and said before leaving, "Don't drink the soup in the pot, it's poisonous."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
When Qiao Lan walked away, she couldn't help but whisper to each other.
"Is it possible that this is a pesticide used to kill insects?"
"No! I think this is the fertilizer water from the fertile land! Last year, my husband taught us how to prepare fertilizer, don't you remember? The fertilizer should be prepared in the spring..."
"I still think this is insecticide! Didn't you listen to my husband, is the stuff in this poisonous?"
When everyone was extremely confused, Qiao Lan asked them to boil the lily water in the pot for seven or eight hours, then filtered the lily residue in the pot, leaving only the turbid yellow liquid inside, and continued to boil it.
When it reached the bottom, a layer of thick turbidity was left. Qiao Lan asked them to simmer over low heat to ensure that the bottom was not burned.
After staying up like this for a while, and adding a night of sedimentation to remove the moisture on top, Qiao Lan finally asked them to take out the sediment underneath and put it on a bamboo mat to dry.
The whole process took three days and three nights.
Just when everyone thought it was over, Qiao Lan asked them to take out the stone mill, grind the lumpy sediments, and put them in the water.
After three days of grinding and stirring, many people's arms were too tired to lift.
After hearing Qiao Lan's instructions, everyone's expressions turned pale.
The resolution I had finally firmed up during the New Year was shaken again today.
Studying as a farmer is so hard!
Each and every one of them was numbly shaking the stone mortar with all their strength.
"Put this powder in a wooden basin, and then soak this year's seeds in it. It must be soaked for at least one day, and then picked up the next day." Qiao Lan said softly.
At this moment, no one in the courtyard dared to express their anger.
Why do we need to soak the seeds? Is this the secret recipe for cultivating superior seeds? Everyone was immediately excited.
Before Qiao Lan finished speaking, her eyes suddenly shifted to somewhere in the corner of the yard, and she spoke again.
"Last year I taught you how to harvest grain, and this year I will start learning how to grow it! Each of you will get a pound of seeds, soak half of them in this water, and plant the other half normally. When the time comes, compare the things you have grown carefully.
If there is any difference, write it down."
"Cultivation of improved seeds does not happen overnight. Even if you learn this method, there is still a long way to go."
"If you are in a hurry and find a big problem, don't rush to pour out the water for soaking the grain. Go to the yard to get some easy-to-survive flower seedlings and soak them in the water. The same method is used. Maybe some different kinds of flowers will bloom.
Flower..." Qiao Lan said in a leisurely tone.
Qiao Lan has a colleague who loves growing flowers and can talk about them for three days and three nights. That colleague has cultivated some novel varieties in his spare time and is said to have won some international awards.
It takes several months to wait for food to be harvested.
If the difference is only in leaf veins and fruits, they may not be able to tell the difference clearly, but looking at the flowers is much simpler and clearer.
After hearing Qiao Lan's words, the young people in the hospital didn't know what to say for a moment.
Qiao Lan was not interested in listening to what they continued and left the yard alone, letting them go about their business.
Presumably, in less than two days, this method of extracting colchicine from lilies will be passed on to their owners.
Each society has increased its lily breeding efforts this year, hoping to cultivate improved varieties.
It would be okay if they were just cultivating improved seeds. I hope they wouldn't be so stupid as to treat the powder as some kind of medicine and drink it by soaking it in water.
Eating too much salt is not good, let alone colchicine which is already toxic?
Qiao Lan still arranged the weekly class schedule for them according to the previous schedule, and asked them to go to the fields to cultivate and fertilize.
In addition, they were given an extra half an hour every day to take care of their own fields. Qiao Lan divided a piece of land for them and planted the seeds they had soaked for them. What they grew in this piece of land was what they would grow this year.
homework.
Qiao Lan didn't expect them to work hard enough to take care of an entire acre of land. It would be enough if they showed some interest. After all, they didn't really come here to learn farming skills.
Just as Qiao Lan thought, after this group of people obtained the secret recipe for cultivating improved seeds, they hesitated and wrote a letter to their families, in which they explained the method Qiao Lan taught them.
If this method is really effective, better seeds will definitely be cultivated!
Warm reminder: The method of colchicine mutating polyploidy in the article is true, but please do not imitate it easily! This article will not be held responsible for anything that happens!