Chapter 171: The Short and Feeble Peach Garden

Whether by design or coincidence, the peach orchard was not far away. Without even driving, they arrived after a brief walk, the distance from the farm being just over a kilometer.

Originally, according to Zhong Di, they should have taken a car, but Zhou Zheng insisted they walk, saying it was close enough that driving was unnecessary.

Walking along the path, Zhong Di finally understood Zhou Zheng's reason for not driving.

The few of them strolled leisurely, chatting as they walked. They discussed quite a few things along the way, basically getting to know each other's general situations.

Zhong Di also shared some of his general background along with a few details, though naturally, he kept the most crucial matters to himself.

The reason he shared so much was simply because Zhou Zheng was very straightforward as well, telling him everything that ought to be said. They were interacting like friends getting familiar with each other's backgrounds.

Lush and verdant, vibrant and fresh, short and weak...

The first few descriptions were fine, but why did that last term sound somewhat abnormal?

The place Zhong Di found himself in was a hundred-acre peach orchard.

The foliage looked alright, and the condition of the trees was passable. The planted variety was a late-ripening flat peach.

Zhong Di had an impression of this type of flat peach: they grew very large, were fuzzy, and tasted wonderful. Once ripe, they were exceptionally sweet.

Why call them short and weak? Simply because these peaches were truly short and weak, not even reaching half of their normal size.

That was simply preposterous!

If they were smaller by a third, one could still accept it, right? For instance, during the cultivation period, certain chemical fertilizers might not have been applied correctly, or the watering might not have been adequate, both of which could lead to undergrown peaches.

However, being more than half the size smaller meant there was definitely a problem.

While observing these things, Zhong Di did not look at any plant status data. He mainly wanted to rely on his naked eye for observation first, so that he could make a comparison later and see where the differences lay.

After examining the shape and size of the peaches, Zhong Di casually plucked one from a tree.

Oh! It really felt greasy!

Was it perhaps due to too much sugar content? Zhong Di split the peach open and took a bite. The flavor was acceptable, indicating that a certain amount of organic fertilizer had indeed been used. There was virtually no lingering bitterness, meaning fertilizer was plentiful.

Zhong Di casually picked two more peaches and split them open. Good heavens, there was even a worm inside.

After looking around the entire orchard, Zhong Di formed some conjectures in his mind, though he was not sure if they were correct, so he kept quiet. He was waiting for Zhou Zheng to express his views first, wanting to see what his assessment would be.

The entire peach orchard was in this state, which was terribly distressing. Imagine an orchard suffering a yield reduction of more than half—how could anyone still make a profit? They would be losing money to death.

If it were merely a reduced harvest, it wouldn't be too tragic. The crucial issue was that none of the peaches had grown into marketable fruit.

Under normal circumstances, they might sell for eighteen yuan and eighty cents per kilogram, and even wholesale might fetch six yuan and eighty cents. But right now, you might not even find a buyer for ten yuan for three kilograms.

"Well, did you spot any issues?"

Zhou Zheng had remained silent all along, including the people accompanying him, who had not uttered a single word from beginning to end.

It wasn't until Zhong Di had finished most of his observations that Zhou Zheng asked tentatively.

"I have some guesses, though I'm not sure if they are correct."

"No worries, take your time. Look around a bit more while I go chat with the local elder."

With that, Zhou Zheng went off to find the person managing this orchard.

So-called understanding actually meant detailed inquiry. This was akin to diagnosing an illness: a physician interrogates the patient themselves, whereas an agricultural technician interrogating the orchardists essentially questions the family members of the fruit trees.

Through this process of inquiry, they could indirectly grasp some of the underlying problems. Combining this with their own observations, an experienced agricultural technician could basically determine the nature of the issue.

Zhong Di did not ask. While Zhou Zheng made his judgments by relying on the family members, he himself could make judgments simply by asking the patient directly.

After watching for a while longer, Zhong Di decided to stop struggling. Insufficient experience was just insufficient experience; that wasn't something that could be resolved by putting on a facade, so he needed to know when to yield.

The moment this thought crossed his mind, the world in Zhong Di's eyes instantly transformed. Every single peach tree became marked with rows of data.

To put it simply, when Zhong Di looked at a tree, its height, crown width, trunk thickness, age, along with the leaf moisture content and the number of open stomata, all manifested one by one.

Once this data appeared, any problematic metrics would be highlighted afterward, much like grading a test where a massive set of data is presented, and any errors are marked in red.

Applied here, it meant certain numerical values fell outside the acceptable range.

For instance, the potassium content in a peach tree should fall within a specific range; the moment it deviated from this data bracket, it would be highlighted.

Zhong Di reviewed them one by one.

The fertilizer showed no major problems. Although some amounts slightly exceeded the standard, they hadn't reached the level of fertilizer burn. Other values were low, but still above the minimum threshold, meaning the overall condition was fine.

This was comparable to a person lacking calcium—they merely had a deficiency, but hadn't reached the critical state where the lack of calcium became fatal.

Plant organisms themselves were not as fragile as one might think. As long as they lacked certain nutrients without the shortage being overly dramatic, no major problems would arise.

For example, the required zinc content range for a plant might be between twenty milligrams and four hundred milligrams, with twenty milligrams serving as the absolute minimum value—already extremely low.

However, as long as it wasn't exceptionally low—meaning it didn't drop below twenty—certain abnormal symptoms wouldn't even manifest.

Note: Generally, a zinc deficiency in plants causes their leaves to shrink, shortens the internodes of the branches, and fades the color of the veins within the leaves.

The most common manifestation was little-leaf disease.

As for moisture, well, that was fine too; everything was normal.

Whether judged by water content or other aspects, everything fell within the normal range. Peaches were a fruit tree with a relatively high demand for water, something all fruit farmers understood well, and they were never stingy when it came to irrigation.

Without water, there would be no yield; could they afford to slack off on that? Obviously impossible.

Scanning through the data item by item, Zhong Di gradually filtered out the problematic metrics, then eliminated them one by one, ultimately locking the answer onto that specific aspect—yes, right there.

The problem lay precisely in that spot.

Zhong Di completely understood what had caused this condition to appear.

Just as Zhong Di intended to delve deeper into the matter, Zhou Zheng approached accompanied by the fruit grower.

"Little brother, hello, would you like a cigarette?" The fruit grower clearly appeared to be someone adept at socializing, pulling out a pack of cigarettes the moment they met.

"I don't smoke, thank you," Zhong Di replied politely.

"Let's get down to business! Zhong Di, how did your inspection go? Do you want to chat with the old gentleman for a bit?" Zhou Zheng asked.

Most agricultural technicians would conduct verbal inquiries, such as asking how many tons of urea were used this year, the watering cycle, and other such information. It wasn't that this information was overwhelmingly vital, but rather that it assisted in making judgments.

This was also why agriculture that never stepped into the fields could not truly be called agriculture; it could only be termed experimental agriculture—flashy on the surface, but utterly useless in practice.

"I definitely need to ask. With my level of skill, how could just looking at them be enough?" Zhong Di joked.

Asking questions was mandatory; otherwise, there was no way to explain certain phenomena.