Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 384 What to Plant in the Basin

It was grown in the northern region of the Great Sheng Dynasty, but it was not popular, so rapeseed was not grown in Shangjing City or Tongde Town where Hualei used to live.

Nowadays, due to the limitations of production conditions and the fact that people have relatively little knowledge about rapeseed, rapeseed is still only planted in spring.

After all, spring sowing is still the preferred method of growing crops in this era. Rapeseed has not yet been separated from some similar plants and is still grown using similar methods.

Of course, the people still don’t know that rapeseed can be used to make oil. They only eat the rapeseed seedlings at this stage. Then they keep some of the seedlings for seeds, which is a waste. Because now most of the people eat soybean oil and some animal fats.

Seeing these rapeseeds, Hualei was overjoyed. Isn't this sending money to herself? The previous corn was not processed well and oil was not extracted. This rapeseed can definitely be used to extract oil.

Moreover, in the previous life, rapeseed had already been planted in autumn and harvested in spring. The next step was autumn, which was just the right time to plant rapeseed.

Moreover, rapeseed is a short-day plant and does not have strict requirements for light. Generally, the light it receives when planted in winter can meet its growth conditions. It also likes a warm and humid environment with a large temperature difference between day and night.

The climate in the basin is usually cold in winter and hot in summer, with a large temperature difference between day and night, concentrated rainfall, and short sunshine time. In this comparison, rapeseed is very suitable for planting in the basin.

Originally, I hadn't really decided what to plant in the basin in the middle of my own barren mountain. Isn't this like sending a pillow when you are sleepy? Hualei was really happy.

Moreover, Hua Lei felt that a lot of perennial medicinal herbs had been planted on this barren mountain. Although the manpower problem was solved, a problem also arose. It was still difficult to harvest them in a short period of time.

This means that before these medicinal herbs are harvested, one only has investment but no income, and it is easy to run into a cash shortage problem.

Rapeseed grows very fast. It can be planted in autumn and harvested in spring to press oil. Rapeseed oil is very valuable. If you press a batch of rapeseed oil and sell it, you can completely alleviate the problem of possible cash shortage.

So, they immediately rushed to the barren mountain and assigned a group of people to start turning the soil and deep ploughing the basin in preparation for planting rapeseed. To plant rapeseed, you must first grow rapeseed seedlings. Because the barren mountain is barren and there are many people working to open up the land, it is not suitable to grow seedlings there. Therefore, Hualei decided that it would be better to grow seedlings in Baihuazhuang.

A sunny, well-drained plot of land was selected in Baihua Village as the seedbed. After tilling the land, digging ditches, loosening the soil into fine particles, and applying enough decomposed organic fertilizer to ensure the fertility of the soil, the seeds can be sown.

Choose high-quality rapeseed seeds and dry them in the sun for a day to sterilize them. You can use warm water of appropriate temperature to soak the seeds for a quarter of an hour for sterilization, and then soak them in lower warm water for one to two hours to increase the germination rate.

Then mix the rapeseed and wood ash and spread them directly on the seedbed. Because the rapeseed particles are relatively small, be careful when sowing and do not spread them too densely to avoid waste.

After sowing, cover with a thin layer of soil and keep the soil moist. After a few days, the rapeseeds will break through the soil. They are densely packed and very tender. At this time, you must pay attention to birds pecking at them.

In addition, watering should be done in a timely manner according to weather conditions. Generally, watering should be done every other day to meet the growth needs of rapeseed seedlings.

When the rapeseed seedlings are a little bigger, they should be thinned and fixed in time to maintain an appropriate density. In order to prevent the density from being too high and affecting the later growth of the rapeseed seedlings, fertilize them to make the seedlings strong, and pay attention to the prevention and control of aphids, cabbage worms, and other pests.

Because rapeseed likes fertilizer very much, during the growth of seedlings, it is necessary to apply fertilizer in time according to the growth of seedlings to promote the healthy growth of seedlings. After a period of time, the rapeseed seedlings will grow smoothly.

At this time, the basin in the barren mountain has been cleared of the roots of weeds and bushes and has been almost deeply plowed. Because rapeseed has a taproot, a straight root system, the root system is relatively developed, widely distributed, and has many branches, so the land needs to be deeply plowed.

And the soil should be loose and breathable, and not compacted. If it is compacted, the roots of rapeseed will not breathe well, leading to lack of oxygen, which is not conducive to the growth of rapeseed. Therefore, basins that retain fertilizer and water and do not accumulate water are most suitable for growing rapeseed.

After the fields are prepared, ditches need to be dug. Every half zhang or so, a ditch about half a foot deep is dug for irrigation and drainage.

After the ditch is dug, start applying base fertilizer to the field. Rapeseed likes fertilizer and is resistant to fertilizer, and its root system has a very strong ability to absorb fertilizer, so you can apply more fertilizer. Spread the fermented chicken and duck manure evenly on the ground, and the field is almost ready.

When the rapeseed seedlings grow five to six true leaves, they can be transplanted. Use plenty of water to thoroughly irrigate the seedbed to make it very moist. This way, when pulling out the rapeseed seedlings, the roots of the seedlings will not be damaged, ensuring the smooth growth of the seedlings.

Then, use a pointed wooden stick to poke a small hole of appropriate depth in the ground with a row spacing of about one foot and a plant spacing of about half a foot. Put the seedling into the hole, cover it with fine soil, and compact it. After transplanting, fertilize and water it to establish the roots.

During the period from transplanting to spring, rapeseed fields need to be tilled and loosened two or three times to prevent soil compaction. After the beginning of spring, it is better to till the soil shallowly rather than deeply, and weeding should be done in time to prevent weeds and rapeseed seedlings from competing for fertilizer and affecting the growth of rapeseed.

Finally, the bare basin was planted with lush green rapeseeds. Looking at these rapeseeds, Hualei sent a message to Uncle Zhao at Baihua Village, asking him to add a dozen more bee boxes, because the rapeseed flowers in this basin would definitely need the help of bees next spring.

Moreover, the peony flowers all over the mountain also need these little elves. In this way, not only can the crops be pollinated and the yield be high, but also more honey can be produced on the farm. It is simply killing two birds with one stone and making money on both sides. At this time, the buds felt as sweet as if they had eaten honey.

After receiving the message from Hua Lei, Uncle Zhao immediately ordered another twenty boxes of bees, placed them in Baihua Manor, and began to raise the bees carefully.

Although I have no experience in growing rapeseed, it went relatively smoothly with reference to other crops planted in autumn and Hualei's extensive knowledge from his previous life.