Chapter 29 The Secret of Truffles
January 25th.
Maybe it's because the New Year is approaching, and the weather has changed from the gloomy and rainy days of the past few days. Today there is a rare warm sun.
Jiang Miao gathered all the non-local employees who were preparing to return home and took out a large stack of red envelopes.
"Come on! Work hard!"
Hand over the red envelope worth 888 yuan.
Zhang Xinyi quickly took it with both hands: "Thank you, boss! Happy New Year, boss!"
"Happy New Year!"
Soon, more than two dozen out-of-town employees received New Year’s red envelopes worth 888 yuan. Then they took their suitcases and took five of the company’s pickup trucks to the high-speed rail station or passenger terminal.
Lin Shuya on the side looked at the deserted company, breathed a sigh of relief, rubbed her red palms, and asked with a smile: "You should stay at the company these days, right?"
"Well, the company has to have management staying on."
"I don't have anything to do. Collecting samples from southern Yunnan takes time. Currently, we have obtained about 5 kilograms of truffle samples; Cophyllum gallinacea will not be available until July or August, and matsutake will also not be available until July or August."< br>
Jiang Miao squatted down and touched the rhubarb brought from his hometown. It was this guy who found out that he was knocked unconscious by lightning. He rubbed its head and fed it a piece of eel meat.
"How are you doing with truffles?"
Lin Shuya gave him a brief introduction to the situation: "Currently, many places are conducting research on black and white truffle cultivation technologies. Among them, the Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute in Panshi completed the cultivation technology to imitate the wild environment in 23 years."
"The yield per mu should be very embarrassing!"
"That's right." Lin Shuya replied, squatting down and watching Da Huang eating eel meat.
The reason Jiang Miao guessed that the per-acre yield of white truffles was embarrassing was because the market price reflected the actual production situation.
If the listed Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute can achieve large-scale mass production of white truffles, the market price of white truffles will definitely fall.
However, Jiang Miao learned from the purchasing department's reports that the price of white truffles in recent years has remained at around 400 to 1,000 yuan per kilogram, with an average of around 580 yuan per kilogram.
Since the market price has not plummeted, it means that the technology of the Panshi Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute cannot achieve large-scale mass production, and can only be cultivated on a small scale to imitate the wild environment.
"Dahuang, let's go!" Jiang Miao pulled the dog's leash.
On the country road to Nanhu Farm.
The morning sun was shining brightly, and although the north wind still refused to take a holiday, the sunshine still brought a touch of warmth to pedestrians.
The two held rhubarb and walked to the temporary edible fungus laboratory at Nanhu Farm.
Twenty minutes later.
At the foot of the hillside on the north side of the farm is a temporary laboratory built in container houses.
Jiang Miao, who changed into a set of protective clothing, saw Lin Shuya's bags made of sawdust, soil, quicklime, and gypsum. There were more than a hundred bags in total.
These bags use different ratios, with 10 bags in groups, with a total of 14 control groups.
Through the identification panel, Jiang Miao saw the white truffles in these bags.
The growth conditions of three of the groups were relatively good. Jiang Miao glanced at the labels, and there was a hint of certainty in her eyes.
Because of these three groups of bag materials, one group is the understory soil from the Panshi white truffle producing area, and the other two groups are artificial soil imitated based on the composition of the Panshi understory soil.
‘Sure enough, the trace elements in the soil have a great impact on the growth of white truffles. Among them, phosphorus, magnesium, manganese and selenium in the soil are crucial to the growth of white truffles. ’
‘And this is not just about supplementing these elements, because white truffles have different absorption and utilization rates for the compounds of these elements. ’
‘For example, white truffles can effectively utilize phosphates in the soil in the form of closed phosphorus, and the pH of the soil must be appropriate. White truffles will not utilize other phosphates. ’ ‘So it is very difficult to add nutrients to white truffles through chemical fertilizers, because they do not like artificial fertilizers. To be precise, they do not have the corresponding genes to absorb artificial fertilizers. ’
‘Just like humans who are lactose intolerant, white truffles cannot absorb and utilize all trace elements. ’
‘In addition, the corresponding temperature, humidity and organic matter also need to be matched. These require specific conditions to ensure the rapid growth of white truffles. ’
Jiang Miao put on gloves and picked up one of the bags: "Shuya, look at this bag, does it already have some mycelium?"
"Let me take a look."
Lin Shuya quickly took out a magnifying glass and carefully observed the bags. Jiang Miao helped her record the corresponding data.
"Hey, is it true?"
After observing all the 140 bags, Lin Shuya looked at the data compiled by Jiang Miao and murmured to himself: "The soil brought back from Panshi really has an impact on white truffles, then Two sets of artificial soil imitating Panshi soil are equally effective.”
Jiang Miao reminded her with a smile: "You can create some control groups, such as trying to use chemical fertilizers and natural minerals to artificially increase the content of some trace elements in the cultivation nutrient soil to see if there is a difference."
"What you say makes sense. Maybe the white truffle needs some natural mineral nutrients that are not artificially synthesized, similar to the artificial eel breeding technology you developed." Lin Shuya has obviously reacted.
Jiang Miao continued: "In addition, the several acres of greenhouses should be upgraded after the Chinese New Year. The internal temperature, humidity and illumination must be controllable, so that the various conditions required for the growth of white truffles can be tested, and even are some dynamic conditions.”
"Then there is soil pH. After all, among the 50 soil samples collected from Panshi, the soil that white truffles like to grow is alkaline lime soil, with a pH between 8.1 and 8.2. Obviously this is also an important influencing factor. , many chemical fertilizers nowadays will change the pH of the soil, and I suspect that chemical fertilizers will have a counterproductive effect on cultivating white truffles.”
Lin Shuya recorded his thoughts.
"In addition, the types of organic matter in the soil brought back are also a direction worth studying. After all, as a symbiotic bacteria, since it needs to be attached to the roots of specific trees in order to grow, this means that these trees provide white truffles with Some specific nutrients ”
Lin Shuya nodded in agreement: "Indeed, it seems that I need to expand the scale of the experiment and add a control group so that I can observe all the conditions required for the growth of white truffles."
After all, if white truffles are to be produced on a large scale, their growth cycle must be shortened, while sufficient accumulation of flavor components must be ensured.
Therefore, by studying and understanding all the growth conditions of white truffles, we can prescribe the right medicine to shorten the growth time without losing its flavor.
At present, the growth cycle of white truffles in the natural environment is as long as 7 to 8 years. Obviously, this time is too long and does not meet the requirements of commercial production.
This is also one of the reasons why it is difficult to popularize the wild-imitating cultivation technology of the Panshi Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute.
Their technical yield per mu can only reach 40 to 60 kilograms of white truffles. According to the current market price, they can probably sell 24,000 to 36,000 kilograms of white truffles.
However, the planting cycle takes seven or eight years, and in the harvest year, it can only be harvested for a few years. After a few years, it needs to be replanted, or the mountains must be closed for natural afforestation to ensure that the organic matter in the soil can be restored.
Obviously, this time cost is too high, and it carries huge risks. No farmer is willing to gamble seven or eight years.
Just like in recent years, many small strain companies have deceived farmers about growing morels.
Can this be grown?
Can.
The premise is that there is technical support from provincial agricultural and forestry agencies and good luck, otherwise there is a high probability of losing all your money by blindly growing morels.
Because morels are very picky about temperature and humidity, and the temperature and humidity they need happen to conflict with each other. Those ordinary greenhouses do not have temperature control systems and humidity control systems, and they can only eat according to God's face.
With luck, there will be a bumper harvest in the first year.
If you are unlucky, it is normal to have no harvest for several years in a row.
The reason why Jiang Miao didn't let Lin Shuya study morels was because the technology for large-scale cultivation of morels already existed, that is, using greenhouses with full temperature and humidity control, as well as good soil disinfection, it could ensure Constant harvest.
The problem is that the cost of doing this is very high, and the price of morels is not too high, which results in the output value not covering the production cost, causing investors to lose money.
(End of chapter)