Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 739 Bai Liyun Sends a Message

Hualei was not aware of what was happening in Shangjing City. She was now considering planting double-season rice in Xichang Prefecture. The weather in Xichang Prefecture was hot, and if irrigation and fertilizers were available, three seasons could be grown in one year.

Therefore, after planting sorghum and harvesting peanuts, Hualei immediately promoted the notice of planting double-season rice throughout Xichang Prefecture.

In several cities in the south of the Yangtze River, due to the warm weather, they have started to plant two rice crops a year, namely early rice and late rice. Therefore, it is also known as the "land of fish and rice".

However, double-season rice planting has not been tried in Xichang Prefecture, so Hualei also wants to give it a try.

If successful, then the tax revenue of Xichang Prefecture will be raised to a higher level, and of course, the income of the people will also increase significantly.

Although they are called early rice and late rice, they are not different in seeds. Instead, they are divided according to the sowing period and harvesting period. They can be the same variety or different varieties.

However, even for the same variety of rice, early rice has a shorter growing period, experiences higher temperatures and particularly strong light.

So in terms of taste, early rice may not be as soft and sticky as late rice. But it doesn't matter, as long as there is a harvest, it can fill your stomach.

Hualei didn't have early rice varieties, so she had to choose the same variety. Early rice is usually planted in late March or early April and harvested in mid-to-late July. It was only early March now, so it was definitely in time for early rice.

Planting early rice is the same as other crops, and it also requires raising seedlings. Because irrigation is convenient, this year Hualei decided to plant as much paddy rice as possible and reduce the planting of dryland rice.

Compared with rice cultivation in drylands, paddy field cultivation provides better conditions for rice growth. The abundant water resources and stable soil moisture can ensure the normal growth of rice.

Moreover, the rice grains produced are fuller and the yield is much higher than that of dryland cultivation. Therefore, Hualei decided to give priority to choosing paddy fields for rice cultivation.

However, growing rice in paddy fields is much more difficult than growing it in dry land, especially raising rice seedlings, which is more troublesome than raising seedlings of other crops, and rice seeds also have higher requirements for seedling fields.

Fortunately, the seedlings do not occupy a large area, and it only takes about a month to free up the area for planting other crops.

Therefore, Hualei chose Guantian, a flat field with convenient drainage and irrigation, as the seedling field.

Before sowing, the field should be plowed and harrowed to make the soil soft and fine, which is convenient for the seedlings to take root and grow. A proper amount of decomposed fertilizer should be applied to the seedling field to provide sufficient nutrients for the growth of the seedlings.

Then water is poured to soak the rice seedlings in water and make them soft. When the rice seedlings are soaked, the rice seeds can be incubated.

Select rice seeds with full grains, soak them in warm water for twelve hours, then cover the water-saturated rice seeds with straw to keep them warm and carry out the germination process.

Because of the hot weather, a little white sprouts appeared on the rice seeds after a day and night. When the white sprouts grow a little longer, the seeds can be evenly sown on the rice paddies.

Then use a flat wooden board to carefully press the rice seeds and cover them with soil. After the rice seeds are covered, they should be covered loosely with a thin layer of straw to keep them warm and prevent birds from pecking at them.

When the rice seeds emerge, the moisture in the seedling field needs to be kept moderate, neither too dry nor too wet, which is conducive to the normal growth of the seedlings.

During the growth period of the seedlings, timely irrigation and drainage should be carried out according to the weather and the actual situation of the seedlings, and attention should be paid to preventing diseases and insect pests. When the seedlings are one palm high, they can be transplanted.

About a week before transplanting, gradually reduce the moisture in the nursery field to allow the seedlings to slowly adapt to the dry environment and increase the survival rate after transplanting.

However, two days before transplanting, the nursery field must be fully irrigated with water to soften the surface of the nursery field. This will make it easier to pull out the seedlings and will also help maintain the root system of the nursery field, allowing the transplanted seedlings to take root and grow in the new environment as soon as possible.

Before transplanting, you also need to tidy up the fields where rice is grown, plow the fields deeply, and use a vertical rake to break up the soil into a paste. Then, apply fertilizer, carefully pull the seedlings out of the nursery, and transplant them into the paddy fields.

Transplanting rice is rather troublesome. In the Great Sheng Dynasty when there were no machines, rice could only be transplanted manually, with faces to the earth and backs to the sky, one by one.

The speed was very slow, but there was no other way, the plow was useless, so it took a long time to plant rice.

While rice was being planted vigorously here, sugarcane planting was also underway in Changtong Prefecture. Hua Lei did not go there in person because he was too busy to do so.

She just asked Zhao Zhizhou to write a letter every ten days. For convenience, Hua Lei also specially transferred a guard beside Rong Jin to be the messenger.

She also asked several neighboring prefectures to help allocate some fertilizers needed by Zhao Zhizhou. Therefore, although there were some twists and turns in the sugarcane planting in Changtong Prefecture, it was successfully completed in the end.

Just when he was about to take a breath, Bai Liyun sent a message. He said that something was wrong with the corn planted in the military camp. Many of the corns planted had not sprouted. The young leaves of the corns that had sprouted had dried up and shriveled.

I hope Hualei can send a few experienced people to help check the situation. In recent years, the corn planting in Shangjing City has changed from seedling cultivation to on-demand sowing.

After the field is leveled, dig shallow pits at a certain distance, then put the soaked corn seeds directly into the shallow pits and cover them with soil.

Spot sowing is much more convenient and faster than seedling transplanting. However, many problems may occur during the growth of corn.

The corn planting in the military camp is also done by spot sowing. However, many corn seeds have not sprouted yet, and many of the sprouted corn seeds have dried up and shriveled their leaves.

After receiving the message, Hualei looked a little solemn. After thinking about it, he decided to go there in person. Although the people in Hufang had a year of planting experience.

However, last year, thanks to Hua Lei's occasional guidance, the corn planted in the government office went relatively smoothly.

It is rare that the seedlings do not emerge or the young leaves dry up and shrink. Therefore, sending household officials who have never encountered such a situation to go there will definitely solve the problem of corn in the military camp.

After explaining the matter at hand, Hua Lei and Rong Jin rode their horses at full speed. A few days later, Hua Lei was already standing at the edge of the cornfield under the leadership of Bai Liyun.

The current situation is just as Bai Liyun said, more than 15% of the corn seeds have not sprouted. Many of the young leaves of the corn seedlings that have sprouted have dried up.