Chapter 28

Upon hearing this, Uncle Changfa immediately perked up. He had been worried all day since he couldn’t buy enough pesticides in the morning. Now, hearing Wu Xiaoxiao say that these herbs could be found right in their mountain, he was relieved.

“This is great! Changxi, Changle, come here and take a good look. Tomorrow at dawn, we’ll go up the mountain to dig them up. If possible, let’s bring back some extra to plant in our backyard. That way, we’ll have them on hand whenever we need them.”

Wu Xiaoxiao’s eyes lit up. “That would be amazing! We could set up a small herb garden right here. That way, we won’t have to go all the way up the mountain whenever we need herbs.”

Changxi and Changle nodded in agreement and carefully examined the herbs. They had seen these plants around before but never knew they could be used to treat fruit tree diseases.

“Oh, there’s one more thing, Uncle Changfa. We also need to dig two big pits to prepare compost for the grapevines.”

“How does that work?”

Wu Xiaoxiao explained, “Grapevines love water and nutrients. Water isn’t a problem here, but since we’ve had several consecutive years of high grape yields, the soil’s nutrients are running low. I noticed the fruiting isn’t great this year, so we need to apply more fertilizer while the grapes are still in their early fruiting stage. That should help them grow better.”

“Alright, I’ll go to the supply team and bring back a couple of cartloads of pig manure. We’ll spread it in the vineyard. Back in spring, we didn’t use enough fertilizer because we prioritized the fields. I didn’t get any pig manure from the supply team back then. Maybe that’s why the grapes aren’t doing as well.”

“Pig manure is great, but it’s even better if we compost it first instead of applying it directly. According to this book, the best method is to mix manure with decomposable leaves and let them sit together for three to five days in the sun. This triggers certain reactions that break down the nutrients, making them easier for the fruit trees and crops to absorb.”

Uncle Changfa waved his hand. “Oh, I can’t read books. Xiaoxiao, you just tell us what to do, and we’ll follow your lead. So, how do we dig these compost pits?”

Wu Xiaoxiao chuckled. Uncle Changfa loved farming and tending to fruit trees, but the moment reading was involved, he got a headache.

“No problem. I already picked a spot—not too far from the vineyard. We’ll compost there. Oh, and Xiaohua, I need your help. Catch as many earthworms as you can and put them in the compost pits.”

At this time, people typically fertilized their crops in two ways. One was using wood ash, which came from burning leftover crop stalks directly in the fields. The resulting ash provided inorganic nutrients to the soil. The other method was applying manure—either human or animal waste—directly to the fields, often in liquid form. Because of this, the fields always had a strong odor after fertilization.

However, burning stalks wasted a lot of resources and filled the air with smoke, while directly applying manure could sometimes damage plant roots and make nutrient absorption inefficient. Ideally, fertilizers should go through a composting process to be broken down by sunlight and microorganisms.

—-

In the best-case scenario, they would build a biogas digester, which could generate biogas for cooking and heating. But for now, that wasn’t an option. Wu Xiaoxiao led everyone in digging two large compost pits, each 3 meters square and 1 meter deep. They started by filling them with dried leaves and branches from the garden. The next day, they would add the pig manure.

Composting also required a lot of earthworms. Since Xiaohua alone couldn’t catch enough, Wu Xiaoxiao asked the plants to help drive worms into the pits.

“Wow, that’s amazing! I never knew there were so many ‘earth dragons’ underground.”

Farmers often called earthworms “earth dragons” and knew they helped loosen the soil, which was good for crops. Seeing so many worms in the soil reassured them that their orchard had healthy soil.

—-

After over ten days of hard work, the vineyard was finally enriched with fully decomposed compost, providing ample nutrients for the grapes.

The orchard’s fruit trees had also been sprayed with pesticides multiple times on schedule. Wu Xiaoxiao even created a chart and posted it on the wall to remind everyone of the proper intervals for pesticide application. Pesticides could be corrosive, and overuse wasn’t good for the plants. Uncle Changfa used to panic when he saw pests and sprayed pesticides every three days. Fortunately, the pesticides he had weren’t too strong; otherwise, the trees might have been damaged.

Now that the orchard was running smoothly, Wu Xiaoxiao could finally take a breather. Over the past few days, she had used up her abilities almost daily. Every night, Auntie Changfa saw her looking pale and worried that she was overworking herself. She even went out of her way to nourish her, once going as far as slaughtering a young rooster to make chicken soup.

She truly treated Wu Xiaoxiao like her own daughter.

Because she had been so busy, Wu Xiaoxiao had only found time to visit her mother once. Everything was fine at home, so she didn’t stay long before rushing back.

Now that the orchard work was done, she could finally rest.

“I checked everything carefully—there’s not a single pest left! And look at the vineyard, the grape bunches are even bigger than last year!” Changxi grinned as he walked in.

He had worked hard these past few days—digging up herbs, spraying pesticides, and exhausting himself daily. But seeing the pest problem gradually disappear made him incredibly happy.

“That’s great!” Uncle Changfa finally relaxed. With the pest issue resolved, this year’s harvest was secure.

“Xiaoxiao, you mentioned grafting earlier. That should wait until the weather gets colder, right?”

Wu Xiaoxiao nodded. “It doesn’t have to be the coldest time of year, but the best grafting period is from late autumn to early spring. During this time, the plants are dormant, and their wounds heal better when spring arrives. If we graft outside this window, the success rate drops. So, for this year, it’s already too late. But that’s okay—we can use this time to select the best branches for grafting. Since our orchard is so large, we need a proper plan. We can’t graft all the trees at once, or else their fruit production will be affected for the next year or two.”

Uncle Changfa nodded. “Got it. I’ll visit some orchards in the neighboring county and see if we can exchange good fruit varieties. You gathered a lot of useful information last time, right? I’ll ask around. You’ve worked hard these past few days. Want to take a break and go visit your mom?”