Chapter 199: Solving Corn Ear Rot
After telling the Gu family the secret of holding the space, Tong Huaqiong felt much more relaxed.
You no longer have to secretly let Maner sneak into the space to take ice cream, potato chips, nuts and other delicacies and then eat them like a thief.
Now she can take things out of the space openly without having to rack her brains to deal with her family.
That night, Tong Huaqiong asked Maner to go into the space and take out ice cream of various flavors stored in the refrigerator and the various biscuits and snacks she had bought for everyone to taste.
Tong Huaqiong peeled off her favorite chocolate and vanilla ice cream, took a bite and smiled with satisfaction.
Gu Jingzhe asked, "Mom, the cake recipes you came up with were all based on the taste of these things, right?"
Tong Huaqiong smiled and said, "That's right."
It seems that no matter how smart Gu Jingzhe is, he can't tell that she is not the original Tong Dajiao.
Liu Yue'e opened a pack of biscuits and handed it to Chen Sufen, and the two sisters-in-law started eating together.
Liu Yue'e said: "You know what, these cookies are even better than our Taohua Desserts."
Gu Dashu agreed, "That's not true. I think many of these are better than the ones in our store."
Tong Huaqiong thought, of course. The modern food industry has condensed the hard work of so many scientific researchers, and its taste has been tested by countless people. How could it not be delicious?
After Chen Sufen finished a cookie slowly, she said, "This cookie tastes good, but it's not difficult to make."
Tong Huaqiong knew that Chen Sufen had a great talent for baking.
After learning how to make pastries from Tong Huaqiong twice at the beginning, I was able to do it completely independently. Now I am more bold and can come up with new recipes based on the ingredients.
It’s no wonder that the recipe she came up with became very popular once it was released.
Tong Huaqiong felt that Chen Sufen was better at baking than herself. After all, the recipe she developed was based on something she had eaten and seen in her previous life, so it was obtained by cheating.
Chen Sufen can make delicious pastries simply by relying on her intuition.
Tong Huaqiong intends to bring out Chen Sufen's talents and skills, and has put her in charge of the research and development of peach blossom desserts and pastries.
At first Chen Sufen refused because she was afraid that she could not bear such a big responsibility.
Later, with Tong Huaqiong's encouragement and even anger, she was able to accept it.
Tong Huaqiong said: "Sufen, you can focus on thinking of more pastry recipes. Let Maner bring out the pastries in the space, and you can taste them and then think of new recipes."
After thinking for a while, he said, "Take Xiuxiu with you to figure it out, and bring Xiuxiu out."
Chen Sufen said: "Don't worry, mother, Xiuxiu will definitely be brought out."
After Liu Xiuxiu had worked in Taohua Dessert Bakery for several months, Tong Huaqiong discovered that Liu Xiuxiu was as talented in baking as Chen Sufen.
Tong Huaqiong hoped that Chen Sufen would bring Liu Xiuxiu out.
Not only Liu Xiuxiu, Tong Huaqiong also plans to recruit more clever girls to work in the bakery.
Girls of this era are not lacking in talent or aptitude, but they lack a platform, so they can only be trapped at home.
Tong Huaqiong is willing to give those clever girls a chance.
……
Since coming to Yanguan Town, He Chao got rid of the troubles of his reputation, gained the trust of Tong Huaqiong, and began to work hard to run the two shops successfully.
Tong Huaqiong doesn't have to go to Yanguan Town every day. She can just look at the account book brought by Gu Taohua every day to control Taohua Desserts as a whole.
Tong Huaqiong now focuses more on her own fields and pig farm.
As autumn approaches, corn begins to fill with grain.
Last time, Tong Huaqiong noticed that some corn ears in her own corn field had pink and dark gray mold spots on the tips.
Gu Dahan said that this situation happens every year, not only in his own cornfield, but also in the cornfields of most families in Qinghe Bay.
Because Tong Huaqiong was in a hurry to go to Pingchuan County to invite He Chao to take charge of Taohua Dessert, she did not take care of the cornfield in time.
But that doesn't mean she doesn't care about her own cornfield.
In addition to the corn cobs in the village that had mold spots on them, the same problem also appeared on several acres of corn planted on the dozens of acres of land they had newly purchased at the foot of West Mountain.
Tong Huaqiong felt that this must be a common problem in the corn fields in Qinghewan. Just like the lack of nitrogen in her own wheat fields that caused the wheat to wither and turn yellow, maybe the soil was also lacking some element that made the corn sick.
Tong Huaqiong sneaked into the space and searched for a few days and finally figured it out. The pink or gray-black mildew spots on corn cobs are caused by corn cob rot. This pathogen not only affects corn yields, but also has an impact on humans and livestock.
She thought of aflatoxin, a carcinogen present in food in her time, which was basically similar.
Corn was an important staple food in that era. The Gu family not only ate corn porridge and cornmeal, but also used corn pulp in pastries. Even the Gu family’s pig feed was mainly corn.
Even for the sake of her own health and the development of her pig farming business, Tong Huaqiong has to solve the problem of corn ear rot.
This time, she not only wanted to solve her own problem, but was also willing to share the solution with the villagers.
There is nothing else to say. If the corn bacteria of other families are not solved, it will affect our own family.
First, the germs will be blown into the soil by the wind, and then the germs from other corn fields will become a source of pollution for their own corn fields along with the wind.
Secondly, the pig feed they buy from the village is corn, and the mold on the corn will affect their own pigs.
Tong Huaqiong had witnessed the power of aflatoxin in her previous life, and specifically told Gu Dahan to ensure good quality control when purchasing corn from the village, and to discard all corn with mold or hair.
If the corn ear rot in the village cannot be eliminated, the corn disease will be further aggravated year after year. If the yield drops to a certain extent, they will have to purchase corn from outside, which will greatly increase the cost.
Therefore, for the sake of her own health and the healthy growth of the pigs, Tong Huaqiong decided to be selfless.
In fact, corn ear rot is not difficult to treat. It can be cured by prevention and land maintenance.
If it were her previous life, choosing high-quality seeds that were resistant to ear rot could solve this problem at the source, but her own corn harvest was about to begin, and even if she activated the golden finger in the space to buy high-quality seeds, she would have to wait until next year.
I guess we won’t just ignore the cornfield this year.
Therefore, the only way to treat ear rot in our own corn now is to use fungicides.
Tong Huaqiong bought carbendazim and methyl thiophanate and asked Maner to take them out from the space to sterilize her own corn field first.
Now Tong Huaqiong didn't have to rack her brains to explain to her family the origin of these disinfectants, and she didn't have to lie when she met officials from the Ministry of Agriculture.
She told her family directly that the disinfectants were found in the space.
As the person in charge of farming and pig raising in his family, Gu Dahan was a little skeptical about these disinfectants. He was afraid that if they were not effective, they would destroy the intact corn cobs, which would be the end of him.
But Tong Huaqiong said that for many years, mold spots have appeared on the ears of corn in his own fields every year. Instead of waiting for the mold spots to disappear automatically, it is better to give it a try.
As soon as Tong Huaqiong opened her mouth, Gu Dahan didn't dare to refute. After all, the reason for this year's bumper wheat harvest was thanks to the fertilizers that Tong Huaqiong took out from the space.
In addition to removing mold, Tong Huaqiong also noticed that some corn ears had cotton bollworms, so she took out the insecticide for cotton bollworms and planned to solve the problem together.
The specific application of fertilizers and pesticides is controlled by Gu Dahan.
Gu Dahan didn't trust others, so he personally did the sterilization and pest control in the fields.
Of course, to be on the safe side, he chose an acre of land for the experiment.
As Tong Huaqiong expected, the effect of the fungicide on the acre of land was apparent after just three days.