Chapter One Hundred and Five: Putting the Cart Before the Horse

At this moment, six broad categories appeared in his mind, and each category contained numerous problems.

Behind each of those problems was the orchard’s own data, along with the reasonable range those figures should have fallen within.

For example, in terms of soil nitrogen, the orchard soil contained only 0.2 grams per kilogram, while the standard range was 0.3 to 4 grams per kilogram. In other words, the orchard was deficient in nitrogen.

It was that direct, that clear.

Looking down at the soil beneath his feet, Zhong Di intended to use this as his point of entry and deal with the issue as a whole.

Although he could see the problems at a glance, he could not speak them out so bluntly. He had to give every answer a reasonable explanation; otherwise, if he could size things up and produce exact figures from a single look, they might drag him off to be dissected.

“Yes, wait a moment.” Gao Song’s face was full of confusion. He had come here to see about the orchard, so why did they need a shovel? Wasn’t that a little too unprofessional?

Still, Gao Song did not voice his doubt. They were asking for help, and whatever they needed, he would cooperate first.

Before long, Gao Song brought over a shovel. Zhong Di took it without another word and began digging at once.

He chose a spot beside a pear tree, directly beneath the reach of its crown.

Zhong Di had always worked in the fields. Though his strength was not as great as Shao Hong’s, it was far from small, and digging a hole was an effortless task for him.

After digging about half a meter deep, Zhong Di stopped and touched the soil with his hand.

Sandy loam, with very little clay, low organic matter content. It looked like yellow sand, barren of nourishment.

In his eyes, all of that transformed into streams of data: how much organic matter there was, how much came from microorganisms underground, how much from plant residues.

It was like the tomatoes you ate—when sent for testing, they would yield cellulose content, vitamin C content, carotene content, and so on.

“Your soil’s organic matter is far too low, and it’s mostly sandy. You haven’t applied organic fertilizer here in many years, have you?”

As he spoke, Zhong Di filled the hole back in. The purpose of digging was to see the soil’s main composition and roughly how much of it there was. To his eyes, these figures appeared directly; he simply could not put them so plainly into words.

Next, he looked at the roots of the pear trees. Overall, there were very few fine roots, and the whole tree gave off a kind of sickly feeling. Some of the roots had already begun to rot.

For a tree, the main structures that absorb water and nutrients are the fine roots. Roots thicker than five millimeters have, in truth, very little ability to take in water or fertilizer anymore; the thicker ones mainly serve to anchor the tree.

Given the state of the soil, with such poor aggregate structure, having so few fine roots was only to be expected.

“Right, we’ve always used chemical fertilizer. Sheep manure is too much trouble to spread, and it has too many weed seeds. Last time we used organic fertilizer, the whole orchard was full of weeds.”

“Don’t avoid it just because it’s troublesome. As for the weed-seed issue, that means it wasn’t properly fermented. Sheep manure that hasn’t fermented properly is not only a weed-seed problem—it can also burn the roots.”

As Zhong Di spoke about the orchard’s problems, he also offered corresponding advice.

At first, Gao Lin looked more disdainful than anything else, but as Zhong Di explained further, the astonishment in his eyes grew stronger and stronger.

Much of what Zhong Di said was the same as what those technicians had said before. More than that, however, Zhong Di’s explanations were even more thorough than those of the professionals, and easier to understand as well.

For instance, when he talked about the corresponding medications, he brought up agricultural streptomycin.

When professional technicians came, they would rattle off a long list of medicines that all needed to be sprayed, but as for why they needed to be sprayed, they had no idea themselves.

Zhong Di, by contrast, would explain that agricultural streptomycin targeted bacterial diseases, while copper hydroxide was a broad-spectrum fungicide that could address a little of everything, but truly control none of it.

It was that straightforward, and that clear.

“As for watering, try not to flood-irrigate in the future. The best way is to water through trenches. Only when the trees truly need a large amount of water should you flood-irrigate—for example, in spring waterings, winter waterings, or during the fruit-swelling stage. Reduce large-area irrigation.”

That was another issue. In the behavioral data he could perceive, watering was also a major problem. Usually, things would be fine here, and then one heavy irrigation would bring in pathogens from elsewhere. That was a fatal issue.

From soil problems to watering problems to fertilization, Zhong Di spoke of them all, and he emphasized the most important points in particular.

Gao Song had little education, so it was mostly Gao Lin who was taking notes.

To Zhong Di, all those reference data points added up to a single conclusion.

Putting the cart before the horse.

The disease, and the problem behind it, both had a root cause that was wrong from the very beginning. The management approach itself was wrong. How could there be no problems? Even if you kept spraying pesticides, it would not do much—only a drop in the bucket.

It was like teaching a student with the wrong method. How could you teach properly then?

Year after year, they pursued higher yields, not even allowing the fruit trees a chance to rest. Worse still, they treated chemical fertilizer as the sole source of nutrition.

How could that not cause trouble?

If you made a child who ate fast food like KFC all the time compete with a child who ate a normal diet, which one would have the stronger resistance?

The answer was beyond doubt. This was a root-level problem.

Aside from that, Zhong Di also explained some methods of using pesticides. Many of them did not need to be sprayed at all; even if sprayed, the effect would be limited, and they would only weaken the tree’s vigor.

As for twig blight, in fact, agricultural streptomycin alone was enough. There was no need for so many mixed and miscellaneous drugs.

“My boy, thank you!” Gao Song’s eyes lit up, and he hurried to express his gratitude.

Zhong Di did not know whether what he had said could completely solve the twig blight problem, but it could certainly restrain its spread effectively.

It was like a person who was always falling ill: if you first strengthened his resistance, everything would gradually improve.

From the behavioral data, so long as the problems he had mentioned were solved, the pear trees would naturally recover. He did not know the underlying principle, but Zhong Di chose to trust what he had seen.

After giving a few more detailed instructions, Gao Lin drove Zhong Di back to the orchard. By then, Gao Lin’s attitude was no longer the same as before, and he even bought Zhong Di the most expensive bottle of mineral water.

Zhong Di did not refuse. He had been talking for so long that his mouth was dry.

“Happy Picking Orchard?”

Sitting in Gao Lin’s car, Zhong Di suddenly spotted a picking orchard. It was not far from his place, and he had not driven this road in quite some time.

But if he remembered correctly, he had never seen this picking orchard before. Looking at the sign, so brand-new, it must have opened recently.

He only glanced at it before looking away. Having a concept for picking did not mean others lacked one. It would not affect his own business, and might even help draw traffic his way.

After all, their competitiveness was not limited to picking alone. Zhong Di understood that very clearly.

After dropping Zhong Di off at the orchard, Gao Song left. He would need to go back and carefully recall and organize everything Zhong Di had said; these were all means of saving the orchard.

The emergence of disease was never caused by just one aspect. It was like a fever: perhaps it was brought on by internal heat, perhaps by a virus, or perhaps it simply had something to do with the weather being too hot.