Chapter 256 Soil
Early October should be the season when sea buckthorn bears fruit, but the sea buckthorn forest in Jiahe is only one year old at most.

But the inconspicuous sea buckthorn trees play a role in maintaining water and soil, preventing wind and sand, and improving soil.

The weather in Jiuquan during this season is pleasant with moderate temperatures during the day, which is quite suitable for outdoor activities.

After thinking for a while, Guo Yang said to Lao Song who came to pick him up: "Lao Song, go to the Gobi project area and take a look. Do you know where Xie Shijie is?"

Old Song said, "Boss Xie and Boss Yan went to the Jinta this morning, and we don't know when they will be back."

"Then let's go by ourselves."

The Gobi Desert is a natural road, but the road leading to the project area has been simply leveled, and no sharp or large rocks can be seen.

Neatly arranged sea buckthorn forests are on both sides of the road, like warriors guarding the Gobi Desert.

But they are still young, and their height and crown width are not enough. The wind will still erode the gaps between the two rows, and the sand on the surface will still be blown.

But this situation will become less and less as the tree grows.

After passing through the sea buckthorn forest, you will see the vast sea of ​​ramie. The flowering period has passed, and even the seeds have matured and been picked, entering a dormant period.

Finally the car stopped by the Taolai River. The cliffs here were not that steep. A group of machines were busy working on the river bank and the Gobi Desert on both sides.

Guo Yang got out of the car, stood on a high place and looked around. The main thing he found was that the land was flat.

After a while, he was noticed by the staff in charge of the scene.

"Hello, Chairman. I am Dai Yang, the technical manager here."

Guo Yang looked at the person. He had never seen him before. He looked very mature, but not necessarily very old.

"What are you doing here?"

Dai Yang said: "After the beginning of next spring, we will start planting sea buckthorn and ramie by the river and on both sides of the Gobi Desert. This year we will first level the site, dig planting trenches, clear away large stones, and replace the soil where necessary."

Guo Yang also realized that planting trees in the Gobi Desert does involve digging windbreak ditches.

"What about the nursery? How many seedlings have been propagated this year?"

"There are 1000 million sea buckthorn seedlings, and the current plan for kenaf is to directly seed with seeds next year."

Guo Yang calculated that 1000 million plants are approximately 10 mu, accounting for one-third of the Gobi desert area between the two cities. This proportion is already high enough.

"Are you still busy here? Would you like to take me for a walk?"

Dai Yang nodded quickly and agreed. There were not many opportunities to work with the boss, although he found Jiahe's investment this time difficult to understand.

After getting on the car, we passed a sea buckthorn forest after a while, and the black drip irrigation tape was still watering.

Dai Yang thought about how many times he had used drip irrigation to water the 1-acre sea buckthorn forest for trial planting over the past year, and he couldn't remember how many times he had used it.

He couldn't help but say, "Boss, the rainfall here is too little, and we need to water too frequently. We need to irrigate every 3-4 days in spring and autumn, every 7-8 days in winter, and even every day in summer."

"The cost is a bit high. It's not bad for 1 mu now, but if it's 10 mu, the cost of watering alone would be excruciating."

Guo Yang raised his eyebrows and asked, "Do you know the growing environment of seabuckthorn and the rainfall here?"

Dai Yang only thought about it for a moment, then said, "The growth environment of sea buckthorn requires an annual rainfall of no less than 400 mm, unless it is planted in hilly valleys and river floodplains."

"But the terrain near Jiuquan is high in the south and low in the north. The precipitation near the Qilian Mountains is still 300 mm, but by the time you get to the Mazong Mountains in the north, it's only 39 mm."

Guo Yang was not surprised. It should be normal to master these things if he could get the position of technical manager.

At least he also knew that the annual rainfall in the Gobi Desert in the Hexi Corridor area was about 100 mm, or even lower.

Guo Yang said: "I remember that in July and August this year, it seemed that there were two days when it rained heavily."

"Two days."

The driver, Lao Song, is a local. Hearing this, he also said, "It seems like there is a heavy rainfall here every year."

Dai Yang said: "But the Gobi Desert can't retain water. We can't just keep watering it like this!"

Guo Yang smiled and said, "The drip irrigation pipe can't last that long. Once the seabuckthorn forest and ramie grow bigger, they should be able to retain water."

In fact, after the summer rainfall, Guo Yang’s confidence in transforming this Gobi Desert has greatly increased.

The biggest characteristics of sea buckthorn and Hanhai kenaf cultivated in seed stores are their strong vitality and water conservation. The effect will be even better after forming plant communities.

As long as the plant is kept watered during the seedling stage and the roots are thoroughly established, the annual rainfall will be enough to maintain its normal growth.

However, Dai Yang did not know this. His years of experience in agriculture told him that irrigation conditions are also very important if sea buckthorn is to have a good fruit yield.

Although there is water source in the Gobi Desert, the cost of drip irrigation is high!

The average cost of planting transformation is 1500 yuan per mu, but the construction of the pump house head, burying of main pipes, and laying of drip irrigation tapes also require investments of thousands of yuan.

Adding in employee salaries and annual water bills, Dai Yang felt that he would never see a chance of making a profit from growing sea buckthorn and kenaf alone.

At this time, Guo Yang saw a car parked on the roadside ahead.

After some observation, I found three people in the sea buckthorn forest. They were holding hoes and digging something.

"Stop, there's someone over there."

Dai Yang also noticed the situation in Seabuckthorn Forest. "It seems to be Professor Ma Rui and his students."

The three people in the sea buckthorn forest also noticed someone coming. They looked up and their eyes met. They recognized each other.

"Boss Guo."

"Professor Ma."

Guo Yang looked at the student holding the hoe. There was a freshly grown sea buckthorn tree lying at his feet, and there was a big pit next to the sea buckthorn tree.

Ma Rui smiled and said, "It has been almost a year since we planted it. Let's see how it is growing."

Jiahe and Agricultural University have maintained a long-term cooperation, and Professor Ma Rui's team is the agricultural planning team for this land in the Gobi Desert.

It was Professor Ma who originally proposed planting sea buckthorn.

Guo Yang asked curiously: "What's the situation?"

Professor Ma smiled and replied: "Very good, the effect is completely beyond our expectations."

As he spoke, Professor Ma walked forward a few steps, came to the dug pit, and picked up the seemingly short sea buckthorn tree.

"In just one year, the height of the sea buckthorn trees generally reached 80cm, and the height of a mature sea buckthorn tree is only 1.5 meters."

"The most important thing is the root system. The taproot is so deep that it is probably taller than the tree."

Guo Yang, Dai Yang, Luo Xiu and Lao Song all gathered in front of the tree and the pit, only to see that the main root of the dug sea buckthorn tree had been broken off.

In the pit that was more than half a meter deep, there was still a section of the main root left, and there were also many fibrous roots scattered around it.

These densely packed roots pass through the cracks in the rocks, or is it more appropriate to describe them as wrapping around them?
Because if you look at it this way, the soil in the cracks of the rocks has been fully utilized by the sea buckthorn roots.

Dai Yang already looked as if he had seen a ghost. Everyone in the northwest knows that sea buckthorn trees can prevent wind and fix sand, but is this how it is done?
This is just a little bit of soil and I don’t want the wind to blow it away!
Dai Yang jumped into the pit and dug with his hands, but the stones still scratched his hands and hurt them. They were real gravel!
He asked, "Professor Ma, if this tree grows a little bigger, will it really be able to retain water?"

Professor Ma smiled and said, "As it is now, the water retention capacity is very strong. When we first dug it up, the soil underground was still moist."

Dai Yang said: "That's because we replenish water regularly, so it's moist."

"This may be part of the reason." Professor Ma analyzed and walked to another row of sea buckthorn trees.

"Look around these trees. In the Gobi Desert, where there was no grass before, you can now see annual plants such as halophyte, teff, and Artemisia pentascens completing their life cycle."

"At the same time, seeds of super-xerophytic shrubs such as red sand and symphytum occasionally germinate. As long as there is rainfall, they can grow into mature plants and bear fruit."

Dai Yang walked over and pulled out the weeds next to the tree.

"These weeds will also consume soil fertility and affect the quality of sea buckthorn planting."

Guo Yang was also observing. It was already October, and the temperature difference between day and night was extremely large. Many annual plants had withered.

But you can see the remaining dead branches and leaves.

He remembered an introduction about sea buckthorn in the seed store, which said that the effect is better when forming a plant community.

"Professor Ma, are these plant communities?"

Professor Ma nodded and said, "One-year-old teff is the dominant plant in the herbaceous layer, and they all have the characteristics of being short-lived and drought-resistant.

In addition to artificially planted sea buckthorn, the dominant species in the shrub layer are super-xerophytes such as red sand and bubble thorn; there is currently no tree layer. "

“There is already a trend towards a plant community dominated by shrubs and herbs.”

Hearing this, Guo Yang understood carefully. In addition to the joy brought by the plant community trend, two other words also attracted his attention.

Short-lived, drought-avoiding, ultra-xerophytic plant.

If I understand correctly, these are the dominant plants in the Gobi Desert.

It is equivalent to finding him another direction to collect germplasm resources.

Guo Yang asked: "Will manually clearing weeds from the planting area affect the formation of this plant community?"

Dai Yang also looked over. Irrigation and weeding can be said to be the main processes in the management of sea buckthorn seedlings.

Weeds compete with sea buckthorn seedlings for water and fertilizer, thus affecting the growth of sea buckthorn. If weeds cannot be removed, it will definitely affect the income from fruiting in the later stage.

Professor Ma pondered for a moment and said, "Weeding will definitely have more advantages than disadvantages. If you want to form a plant community earlier, you can just remove the weeds around the tree tray."

"In the desert Gobi vegetation community area, due to the harsh natural environment and the constraints of resource factors, species have to coexist under conditions of water and fertilizer shortages, which leads to competition among them in addition to their similar ecological characteristics."

"But we are mainly cultivating sea buckthorn trees, so naturally other plants need to adapt. Over the long term, the plants that can adapt will have many complementary characteristics."

“As a result, there are differences in the way resources are utilized, and different plants adapt to each other and co-evolve, thus achieving harmony between species and the environment.”

"Only then can a relatively stable plant community be formed."

After listening to Professor Ma’s words, Guo Yang finally understood the meaning of plant communities.

In the past, he understood that sea buckthorn grew into a forest.

But now I think that growing a sea buckthorn forest is only the initial stage. If we want to fully tap the ability of sea buckthorn and kenaf to conserve water resources.

Biodiversity is also essential.

Therefore, we should communicate more with experts and professors in these industries. Just like this time, Guo Yang learned a lot from Professor Ma Rui.

Guo Yang asked: "Is it the same situation with Hanhai Red Hemp?"

Professor Ma said: "The situation of kenaf is better, and it is more suitable for planting in areas such as river banks, lakesides and wetlands."

Guo Yang extended his right hand to Professor Ma and said, "Professor Ma, thank you for your efforts. I will trouble you to come and monitor more often in the future."

"We are also looking forward to Jiahe. If it can really change the Gobi desert landscape, it will be a cause worthy of mention for the whole country."

"That's for sure."

The two shook hands and said goodbye.

Afterwards, Guo Yang went to the nursery to take a look and found that the entire facility was already very complete.

Outdoors, in the greenhouse, in the open field, in nutrient cups, some have been breeding for half a year to a year, and some have just been propagated by cuttings.

Sea buckthorn seedlings that are 1 to 2 years old are most suitable for planting.

With careful management, the time required for transplanted seedlings to bear fruit is shorter than that required for direct seeding.

The reserves of kenaf seeds are also sufficient. Under this circumstance, as long as the manpower can keep up, the 30 acres of Gobi Desert between the two cities can be sown and transplanted next year.

Similarly, Golden Harvest’s headquarters is also under preparation.

Guo Yang felt that this trip was not in vain.

……

at the same time.

On the grassland of Jinta, the plowshare driven by the Cheetah tractor easily turned over the soil, and the roots of the green manure were intertwined, causing exclamations.

Several experts and professors couldn't wait to walk into the land.

The soil is deep and soft. With just a light handful, you can feel the rich nutrients and moist touch.

“This soil is so fertile!”

"For a moment I even thought I was back in Northeast China, standing on the black soil."

"It is the first time that the soil in heavily saline-alkali land can be improved to this extent after planting green manure."

in the crowd.

Su Guozhou from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Dr. Zhou from the Planning and Design Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture looked at each other and smiled in tacit understanding.

In just four years, so many incredible things have happened on this land.

Dr. Zhou, in particular, is deeply shocked by the changes here every time he comes, and this time is no exception.

In recent years, he has come here to test the soil almost every once in a while, and this time is no exception, and he also brought some soil experts.

Dr. Zhou stepped forward and said: “According to our long-term monitoring, the physical and chemical properties and biological characteristics of the soil here have changed greatly.”

"The soil organic matter, soil biomass, soil water and fertilizer storage capacity, etc., can all be called a high-yield field."

After Dr. Zhou introduced various detailed soil data, Su Guozhou also stated the purpose of the higher-ups.

"Everyone knows the benefits of growing green manure, but green manure cultivation in my country is still in the stage of small-scale application."

"Farmers lack the awareness of growing and using green manure, and the relevant technologies supporting green manure are also incomplete."

"So this year the country launched a major project to clarify the effect of planting green manure on soil improvement in various regions according to regional differences, establish optimal databases for various regions, and provide accurate and comprehensive reference standards for growers."

"In addition, the way of returning green manure to the fields should also be studied according to different crops, such as intercropping, crop rotation, fallow green manure, etc."

The technical experts present included those from Northeast China, Shandong, Hebei and Jiangsu, all of which are key promotion areas for Alfalfa 1.

Hearing this, they all agreed with a smile.

If the coastal saline-alkali land can achieve this effect in a few years, they will definitely benefit from it.

However, the situation in different places is different, so how can we achieve the best improvement effect and help farmers obtain the greatest benefits?

These are points worth studying.

Through this research, they can also obtain project funding, publish papers, and improve their professional titles. In a word, everyone is happy.

Not far away on the other side.

Xie Shijie, Yan Qun and Cai Bin were also communicating.

Cai Bin said, "Boss Yan, do you really want to save all of it for next year's green manure? With such a large area, it will be too dry to bear the smoke next year!"

Zhang Wei has resigned and returned home. Currently, Cai Bin is temporarily taking over Donghe Agricultural Machinery.

Although Donghe Agricultural Machinery’s team is huge, the area involved by Jiahe is also increasing and is still very scattered.

Jinda's 20 mu of grassland will be turned into green manure, and it has also contracted 50 mu of new saline-alkali wasteland, and these actions will also be started this winter.

In addition, there are 50 acres in Zepu and more than acres in Wuyuan.

These are Jiahe’s own bases, and it is expected that all of them will be deep plowed next year.

Tianhe has also signed seed production bases worth hundreds of thousands of yuan with farmers, which are also businesses that Donghe Agricultural Machinery can strive for.

The task is extremely heavy.

Yan Qun pondered for a moment and replied, "Seed corn can only be planted in May, which is still more than half a year away!"

"The best time is to turn over the green manure in March next year, and then ferment it for a month before rotary tilling. This way, the alfalfa No. 3 can be transformed into at least four to five tons of organic fertilizer after it rots, saving thousands of yuan per mu in fertilizer purchase funds."

Cai Bin said: "This soil is already good enough!"

Yan Qun also refused to give in and said: "Alfalfa No. 1 is a high-quality organic green manure, so it is natural to maximize the soil improvement effect."

Cai Bin couldn't help but make a bitter face and thought about countermeasures.

Xie Shijie said: "The reclamation of the one million mu of alfalfa land also relies on your one or two hundred people. You can prepare the land and deep plow it this winter, and then rotary tillage it in the spring."

Seeing Cai Bin looking worried, Xie Shijie patted him on the shoulder.

"If you can complete this land reclamation work this winter, your position as the general manager of Donghe Agricultural Machinery will be secure."

The opportunity was right in front of him, so Cai Bin naturally wanted to seize it.

He was originally just a professional farm machinery driver. The only reason he got this opportunity now is because he joined Donghe Agricultural Machinery early and the boss couldn't find a suitable candidate at the moment, so he let him take over.

I don’t know whether I can get a permanent job if I do a good job, but if I don’t do a good job, there will definitely be no chance at all.

Cai Bin thought about it for a while and made up his mind: either update the machine or expand the team.

Just do it and that's it.

(End of this chapter)