The daily life of a farm girl raising a family

Chapter 30 Fruit Tree Grafting
  Mrs. Zhang glared at her son and said, "Such a big man, how can he be snoring like that?"

"Mom, Yunzheng said that this kid Xiaojiu has come up with a new method of fertilizing, and he can also grow wheat in winter."

Mrs. Zhang looked at her granddaughter in surprise. Upon seeing this, Zhao Yunxi told everything in detail.

Yang Chunsheng has been farming all his life, so he naturally cares about farming.

Looking at his granddaughter with bright eyes, Yang Chunsheng asked: "Is this method really effective? Can I still grow winter wheat?"

"My dear, don't worry. This method has been tried at home, and the fertility is really good. Winter wheat grows green and strong when it first snows. We don't know how thick the snow is now. But as long as it can survive the snow, 56 You can harvest food no matter what happens during the month."

I don’t know why, but I heard my granddaughter’s firm tone. Old Yangtou inexplicably chose to believe it.

"If you plant this spring this year, we will fertilize it according to this method. If you have a harvest of winter wheat, we will plant it this year. The kids in the family are all grown up, and we can't make much money from this fruit in a year." Yang Dashan said.

Yang said in surprise: "Don't merchants always come to collect the fruit?"

Speaking of this, Yang Dashan said depressedly: "Don't mention it, people say that our fruit tastes bad. This year is the last year to harvest, so we are also worried."

Zhao Yunxi heard this and asked: "Uncle, what are they harvesting fruit for? Is it preserved fruit?"

Yang Dashan scratched his head in frustration and said, "Just making preserved fruit. The merchants said that our fruit is too sour and tastes bad. They need more sugar and the cost is too high."

Today's fruit trees are all grafted, so both the taste and sweetness and acidity are suitable.

She didn't know much about fruit tree cultivation, so after understanding the situation clearly.

Zhao Yunxi entered the space while no one was paying attention. I spent my points to buy a modern book on cultivating fruit trees, and I spent my points to make the book look like the current book.

Looking at the bored expressions of his grandfather's family, Zhao Yunxi took out a book and said: "Uncle Grandpa, this is an agricultural book I bought at the county bookstore before. It mainly talks about the methods of cultivating fruit trees. I think my grandfather planted a lot of books. I brought the fruit tree with me when I came to pay New Year greetings, so grandpa could see if he could use it."

When the father and son heard about fruit tree cultivation, they immediately became interested.

He stepped forward to take the book and read the records on it.

Yang Chunsheng looked at his granddaughter in confusion and said, "What does grafting mean?"

Zhao Yunxi explained: "I studied it for several days when I first got the book. What I roughly understand is that it means to connect the saplings of fruit trees with the same attributes to the stakes of another tree."

"What do you mean by the same attributes? How do you graft them?"

"I don't know about the attributes, but I understand how to graft them."

Zhao Yunxi thought about it and it seemed that it would be difficult to explain just by talking.

"My dear, let's go to the yard, and I'll tell you what's going on in detail."

A group of people followed Zhao Yunxi into the yard.

Several people walked into the yard.

Zhao Yunxi pointed to the bare jujube trees in the yard.

"If this is a fruit tree at home, and the taste of the fruit tree is not particularly good, you can change the performance of the fruit tree through fruit wood grafting, thereby changing the taste of the fruit."

Then he demonstrated the grafting method to everyone. "Xiao Jiu, I have never heard of this method you mentioned. How did you know about it?"

Zhao Yunxi said calmly: "It's what I saw in the book just now, but I can't guarantee whether it will work. But I think the fruit trees at home taste like this anyway. A dead horse is treated as a living horse. Find a few trees There’s no big problem if you give it a try. Everyone will be happy if it works. If it doesn’t work, you’ll lose a few fruit trees at most. But the details still depend on what my grandma and uncle think?”

Old Yangtou is a person who dares to take risks: "That's it anyway, let's give it a try. Xiaojiu is right, at most we will only lose a few fruit trees, which I can still afford."

After the decision was made, everyone returned to the main room and began to discuss. Several people were flipping through the books and read the introduction: Grafting can only be started after the weather gets warmer in March, otherwise the temperature will be low and it will be difficult to survive.

No one has done it before, so we unanimously decided to follow the book.

"But we can learn how to graft now, so it will be less likely to make mistakes when grafting."

Zhao Yunxi picked up two branches in the yard and followed the explanation in the book: Generally, there are five grafting methods for fruit trees, the first is hara-kiri grafting, the second is cleft grafting, the third is skin grafting, and the fourth is inlay grafting. , the fifth is horizontal and vertical connection (actually a T-shaped connection, but these are not available in this era and can only be replaced in this way.

The split grafting method is to split the rootstock in the middle, about eight inches deep. Cut off one-third of the scion, insert it into the rootstock, align the cortex, and then wrap it tightly with hemp rope to ensure that the scion will not be out of position.

Cut-off grafting is to cut the rootstock from the side, the depth of the incision should be more than half, the angle of the scion is deeper than that of the cleft grafting method, and then insert the rootstock, and the rest is the same as the cleft grafting method.

Insertion grafting is to cut the bark on the rootstock with a knife, pry open the cortex, cut the scion into a triangle, and then insert it into the stock. It should be noted that the bark of the stock should cover the scion, and then wrap the hemp rope around it. The cut ends of the rootstock should also be wrapped to prevent moisture loss.

Mrs. Zhang was sincerely happy when she saw her granddaughter chatting in the hall. Thinking of what this child went through two years ago, Ms. Zhang felt scared.

Seeing her daughter's confident and bright look, Yang's face was full of love.

After everyone tried it countless times, they finally mastered the grafting technique. Seeing that everyone was finally finished, Mrs. Zhang immediately said, "Okay, the food is ready. If you have any questions, we'll talk about it after dinner."

When Old Yangtou heard this, he looked at the sky outside the house. Realizing that it was already dark, he quickly asked everyone to wash their hands and eat.

Yang's second brother and his wife returned to their parents' home with their children. The eldest brother's two sons also accompanied their daughter-in-law back to their parents' home.

There are only two elders of the Yang family, the eldest couple and their young grandson at home, so there is no separate table for dinner.

The people at the banquet laughed happily when they saw the interaction between the two aunts and nephews. The joyful atmosphere lasted until the second half of the night, and Zhao Yunxi was too young to bear it and fell asleep.

The next day.

Zhao Yunxi opened his eyes and looked at the surrounding environment in a daze. After realizing that he was at his grandfather's house, he still didn't want to get up.

In the end, it wasn't until Yang entered the room and called Zhao Yunxi that she started to calm down.

The Yang family had glutinous rice dumplings for breakfast today, and Zhao Yunxi had no resistance to glutinous rice balls. I didn’t eat much glutinous rice balls, but drank two bowls of fermented glutinous rice soup.

Seeing how much her granddaughter loved the glutinous rice wine, Mrs. Zhang thought about getting more for her children when they left.

After the meal, a group of people sat around the kang and chatted. The three brothers and sisters Zhao Yunxi said funny things from time to time, making everyone laugh non-stop.

"Uncle Yang and Aunt Yang, are you at home? Something happened!"

A hurried shout interrupted the happy atmosphere in the room.

(End of this chapter)