Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 379 Taking the Initiative

No one dared to disobey the emperor's order. Those who had been cautious and lazy had to go out in full force, braving the wind and rain, turning on the windmills, digging deep ditches, and doing their best to drain the corn fields and prevent waterlogging.

The heavy rain washed the cornfield like a river bursting its dam, and the water in the cornfield flowed along the dredged ditches into the deep ditches on both sides.

The wind turbine continuously drains the cornfield and prevents waterlogging, playing an irreplaceable and efficient role. So from the moment the wind turbine was turned on, there was no more water in the cornfield.

Fortunately, after three days, the rain finally stopped and the sun was barely visible through the clouds. Because the corn fields were drained in time, the corn plants were not continuously soaked by the accumulated water, so they temporarily survived the test of the heavy rain.

However, due to the strong winds accompanied by the heavy rain, large areas of corn plants fell over. There was no other choice but Hua Lei personally led the pioneers to straighten and fix the fallen corn plants in time to promote their recovery.

Because the corn field was flooded, the root vitality of the corn in the field decreased and the loss of soil nutrients was very serious. If no additional fertilizer was applied, the corn's later filling would definitely not keep up, so timely additional fertilizer was needed.

But there were too many crops in the official fields and not enough fertilizer. So after draining the water from the corn fields, the other staff in charge of the corn fields were once again at a loss.

Hualei looked at the cornfield that was in urgent need of fertilizer and went to her own Yuanying Village. Although the storm was quite strong, it did not last very long, and the drainage channel was cleared in time. Therefore, the puddles in the southern part of the city were not greatly affected.

In Yuanying Village, except for some vegetables in low-lying areas that had rotten roots due to heavy rain, the chickens, ducks, geese and pigs were not greatly affected. So there was still a lot of feces every day.

Considering that the fields in Huayingzhuang and Baihuazhuang are located at high altitudes, they were not greatly affected by the storm and did not need much fertilizer for the time being.

Therefore, Hualei issued a notice to temporarily stop exchanging fertilizers with the people in Yuanying Village. All the excess fertilizers were transported to the corn fields in Guantian by boats with the help of the land reclamation workers, and the corn plants after the heavy rain were carefully top-dressed.

At the same time, Hualei also thought that the pH balance in the cornfield might be unbalanced due to the heavy rain, so Hualei transported another boatload of wood ash from the Huayingzhuang workshop and spread it in the cornfield.

Considering the high humidity after rain, corn plants are prone to diseases and insect pests, and timely pest and disease prevention and comprehensive prevention and control of diseases and insect pests are needed. Therefore, at the same time, plant ash water is sprayed on the leaves of corn plants to extend the functional period of leaves and improve photosynthetic capacity, providing sufficient nutrients for corn filling.

When other farmers saw Hualei's behavior, some secretly admired her, while others secretly curled their lips. However, Hualei could no longer take care of the emotions of so many people.

The lesson of her previous negligence, which caused the corn seeds to be scalded and unable to sprout, reminded her that sometimes, one has to shoulder one's own responsibilities. Similarly, one has to fight for one's own benefits.

This year, because there are so many corn fields planted in Guantian, the Agriculture Bureau has assigned all the corn fields to specific people in order to assign responsibilities. Each person is responsible for about 200 mu.

Because of Hualei's strong ability and experience, he was assigned twice as many corn fields as others. Although when the Minister of Agriculture Huang assigned people, he only gave them general requirements and told them to take care of the corn according to the normal process.

As for the damage to the corn fields caused by factors that cannot be reversed by individuals, such as heavy rains and droughts, as long as it is not the fault of the person in charge, no one will be held responsible for the harvest of the corn fields. However, Hualei feels that as long as she can make an extra effort and do a little better than others, it is much better than doing nothing.

If I put in more effort now, maybe the harvest of the corn field assigned to me will be higher than that of others. When the time comes, the people above me will definitely see it after a little comparison.

Even if she can't be the first, Hua Lei doesn't want to be the last one. After all, she has no power and influence now, and there is nothing she can do except work hard.

There was fertilizer on his own farm and free labor on the barren hills, so Hualei basically didn't spend any actual money to add fertilizer to all the corn fields in the official field.

The cornfield finally survived the rainstorm and regained its vitality. The flower buds finally had a few days to rest. After the rainstorm, the scorching sun followed.

I thought the test of the corn field was over, but unexpectedly, there was a problem with the pollination of the corn plants. Because the heavy rain happened to coincide with the heading and flowering period, the pollination of many corn plants was not completed well.

In the process of corn planting and growth, pollination is also a crucial link, which directly determines the corn fruiting rate and yield. If the corn plants are not pollinated, the corn yield will plummet. Even no grains will be harvested. In order to avoid these situations, Hualei led the pioneers to prepare artificial pollination for the corn plants.

Taking into account the large corn planting area and the densely planted plants, the flower buds initially adopted the most common pollination method of shaking the corn plants.

Shaking pollination is a relatively simple method. Just shake the corn plant to allow the pollen from the male flowers to fall naturally onto the stamens of the female flowers below, thus completing the pollination of the corn plant.

The advantages of the shaking pollination method are that it is simple to operate, saves time and effort, and can improve the pollination efficiency to a certain extent.

However, it also has its disadvantages. The success rate of pollination is relatively low. I don’t know if it is because there are too few pollen on the pistils of male flowers after the heavy rain, or because the female flowers have been damaged by the heavy rain and their energy has been reduced.

After completing the shaking pollination, Hualei took Uncle Fu and Uncle Zheng to carefully check the results of the shaking pollination. However, the results were very poor, with less than 30% of the corn plants successfully pollinated.

There was no other choice, so Hualei decided to use direct artificial pollination to pollinate the corn seeds. This is a more traditional and direct method, using a small wooden stick wrapped in thick soft cloth to collect pollen from the stamens, and then applying it directly to the stigma of the pistil.

The advantage of this method is that the pollination success rate is very high, and the hybridization rate can be precisely controlled to ensure the purity of the corn variety.

Of course, its disadvantages are also very obvious. The operation is very cumbersome, the labor intensity is very high, and it requires certain skills and experience. If you rely on just a few people on your own farm, it will definitely not be completed.