As people get busy, time flies! Soon the Qingming Festival passed. And so, Chuncao, Liu Man'er, and the other young wives, while studying, were also busy with work. Once they all learned to drive tractors, Chen Lan assigned Chuncao and Liu Man'er to the task of land reclamation, with them responsible for the initial rotary tillage of the reclaimed land.
More complex steps, such as furrowing and ridging, were relatively more difficult, so Ming Wei and Lin Mai were left to handle them slowly. Other subsequent tasks were handed over to Xiang Xi and Xiao Shuan, who had already completed the spring wheat sowing.
Chen Lan inspected the reclaimed land along the way, preparing to find a suitable plot to plant spring rapeseed.
The thaw came earlier this year, and the weather warmed up earlier. Now that Qingming had passed and the temperature was suitable, it was just the right time to plant spring rapeseed. Several days had passed since Qingming, and the seasons waited for no one.
Chen Lan silently reminded herself that she had to finalize the location for planting spring rapeseed today, as it would take a few more days to prepare the field and sow the seeds as early as possible. Planting too late would affect the germination rate of the spring rapeseed and thus the harvest of rapeseed.
Fortunately, the black soil in the valley was relatively loose and fertile, and the terrain was relatively flat. All that was needed now was a place with convenient irrigation and drainage.
Without much effort, Chen Lan quickly found a large and suitable plot for planting spring rapeseed, estimated to be over twenty mu.
Chen Lan immediately called Xiang Xi and Xiao Shuan, asking them to temporarily stop their work on the paddy fields, letting the water soak the fields shallowly. They would return to deep plowing and leveling after finishing other tasks. For now, they were to help her prepare the rapeseed field.
Thus, the three of them deep-plowed the plot intended for spring rapeseed again. They decided not to apply base fertilizer this year, as the decomposed fallen leaves and grass accumulated over many years in the soil were the best organic fertilizer.
The three of them spent two full days completing the land preparation and irrigating it once more, maintaining moderate soil moisture, after which it was ready for sowing.
The spring rapeseed seeds planted this year were also purchased by Chen Lan from the system. They were of a variety called "Brassica Napus," whose main characteristics were high yield, strong frost and mildew resistance, as well as tolerance to cold, moisture, and fertilizer. Not only was the yield high, but the yield per mu was also very stable.
Chen Lan tried searching for rapeseed planting machinery in the system, and indeed, such machines were available. She set her sights on a newly released rapeseed planter strongly recommended by a merchant. It was an intelligent planter that could simultaneously perform sowing, fertilizing, rotary tillage, pressurization, and furrowing, with one mu taking only twenty minutes to complete.
Chen Lan regretted not seeing this machine earlier, which had caused the three of them to rush and work in vain for two days. However, upon reflection, she felt at ease, thinking that meticulous land preparation was not necessarily a bad thing and might even increase the yield.
So, she no longer hesitated and immediately clicked on the system to place an order for the machine. She stored the machine in the system's warehouse, planning to retrieve it first thing in the morning to use directly.
With the new machine, Chen Lan was no longer as anxious. She carefully taught Ming Wei and the others how to deep plow and fine rake, and how to prepare the land. Xiang Xi and Xiao Shuan continued with the deep plowing and leveling of the paddy fields.
Furthermore, it was already the end of April, and the land for planting corn, potatoes, soybeans, and peanuts also needed to be prepared, as these crops also had to be planted before the end of April or the beginning of May.
Chen Lan suddenly remembered her mother-in-law's vegetable garden also needed tidying. So, she asked Ming Wei to go to the garden with Qian Yingzi, who had experience in vegetable farming, to tidy up the vegetable plots for her mother-in-law and the others to plant vegetables.
After planting the spring rapeseed, Chen Lan, along with Xiang Xi and Ming Wei, and the rest of the group, worked for another ten days or so, finally planting corn, potatoes, soybeans, and peanuts. The remaining farm work involved irrigating these crops every few days and waiting for them to sprout.
After the crops were planted, the irrigation and field management were handed over to Uncle De and the others. Chen Lan truly let go and went to attend to other matters.
Thus, Chen Lan could see every day Uncle De and Uncle Fu, leading a group of elderly men, busy extending irrigation channels and digging several new wells, thereby increasing the number of irrigation wells. They also assigned people to patrol the fields daily, always bustling with activity and enthusiasm, each one full of drive.
The main task of spring planting that remained was transplanting rice seedlings. Chen Lan went to the greenhouse to check on the growth of the seedlings, which were doing well, having reached the three-leaf-one-bud stage. They would be ready for transplanting in a couple more days.
Chen Lan and Xiang Xi and Xiao Shuan spent these two days re-preparing the seedling fields. Since machine-transplanted seedlings were smaller and the planter was heavy, the land preparation requirements were higher. Plowing should not be too deep; if it was too deep, the ground could become uneven, leading to inconsistent seedling depths during transplanting.
The third day was the day for transplanting rice. Everyone woke up early to prepare. After breakfast, they split up and got to work.
Uncle De and Uncle Fu led people to the greenhouse to dig up seedlings. Chen Lan, Xiang Xi, Xiao Shuan, and Ming Wei went to the paddy fields. Everyone was determined to work hard.
When digging up the seedlings, Uncle De saw that everyone was eager to start and quickly stopped them, explaining the precautions. He then said loudly, "Everyone, don't start yet. Wait until I've finished explaining the precautions before you start working."
Seeing that everyone had stopped, Uncle De cleared his throat and said loudly:
"Listen up, everyone! When digging up seedlings from the nursery bed, be careful not to dig up too many at once. Dig, transport, and transplant them promptly. This will prevent the seedling leaves from deforming and reduce handling, thus preventing wilting. Whether the rice harvest is abundant this year depends on this seedling digging. Be careful, everyone, and handle them gently, don't injure the seedling roots!"
Meanwhile, on Chen Lan's side, Xiang Xi and Xiao Shuan were re-checking the calibrated rice transplanter to ensure that there would be no malfunctions that would affect the transplanting progress when it officially began.
Ming Wei and Chuncao stood by to learn, as Chen Lan had said that from tomorrow onwards, they would take turns operating the machine. Xiang Xi and Xiao Shuan would be preparing to dig foundations and build houses.
According to the prompts on the system screen, in the Northeast region, when using a rice transplanter, the general row and plant spacing adopted is thirty centimeters by thirteen centimeters, with three to four basic seedlings per plant.
Since the planting depth is the most critical factor affecting the quality of transplanted seedlings, when using a machine for transplanting, it is important to plant shallowly, ensuring that the seedlings remain upright and do not float. The planting depth should not exceed two centimeters.
And so, starting from the second day, Chen Lan led Ming Wei and Chuncao, along with the other young wives, to work in the paddy fields spanning over a hundred mu.