Raising seedlings saves labor and money: Hunan farmer invents a new seedling-raising method

"These rice seedlings are growing strong, and the yield will be high too. There is great hope for this experiment!" In Yangquehong Village, Sijihong Town, Yuanjiang City, Hunan Province, Xia Gengu, a major national grain-growing household, comes to the field almost every day to inspect how the rice grown with the seedling-raising method that does not use seedling trays is faring. On August 25, the Yuanjiang City Agricultural Machinery Bureau of Hunan Province preliminarily named this further-innovated seedling-raising method the "seedling tray-free hemp ground film seedling-raising method."

Mechanical seedling raising and mechanical transplanting are the key and difficult points in the full mechanization of rice. Three years ago, the "hemp ground film seedling-raising method" that Xia Gengu was the first to propose for development and testing had already been promoted in many places in southern rice-growing areas such as Hunan and Hubei. Hemp ground film seedling raising means a seedling-raising method in which a sheet of hemp ground film is laid on a seedling tray and then covered with nutrient soil for sowing and raising seedlings. The hemp ground film is made from plant fibers such as hemp and cotton, which are abundant locally. It is degradable, pollution-free, ecological and environmentally friendly, and can help fix the seedlings, which is conducive to early transplanting, early development and high yield of mechanically transplanted rice. The Hunan Provincial Agricultural Machinery Bureau named this seedling-raising method the "Xia Gengu seedling-raising method."

At present, in southern rice-growing areas such as Hunan, seedling trays are generally used for mechanical seedling raising under normal circumstances. After two years of promotion, Xia Gengu found a shortcoming in practice: when two trays of seedlings are placed one above the other in rows onto the rice transplanter, sometimes the connection point overlaps, often causing machine jams; sometimes a gap is left at the connection point, making it easy to cause "empty hills" during mechanical transplanting.

Old Xia, who likes to ponder things, thought to himself: if seedling trays are not used, then the problem will be readily solved. After research in the first half of this year, Old Xia worked out a new seedling-raising method: the seedling tray-free hemp ground film seedling-raising method. "After not using seedling trays, two sheets of hemp ground film are more easily joined seamlessly. Lay the hemp ground film directly in the field, spread a layer of nutrient soil on top, and insert steel strips along both sides of the film to ensure the width matches the seedling trough of the rice transplanter. When transplanting, just place the seedlings into the seedling trough."

After testing, Old Xia applied this "seedling tray-free hemp ground film seedling-raising method" to the production of 12 mu of late rice this year. Through comparative practice, it has many advantages. Guo Jianping, director of the Yuanjiang City Agricultural Machinery Bureau, told reporters: first, it can save the cost of seedling trays; one seedling tray costs 6 yuan, and on average 240 yuan can be saved per mu; second, it can save labor and worry, because there is no longer any need for manual repair of "machine jams" and no need for manual replanting of empty hills, which improves work efficiency and can save part of the labor cost; third, it can improve seedling quality and help produce strong seedlings; without the plastic bottom of seedling trays, there is better water permeability and air permeability, prompting the seedlings to grow better. Guo Jianping said that for early rice production next year, the Agricultural Machinery Bureau will participate throughout the entire process in testing and practicing this seedling-raising method, and only after comprehensive scientific verification will it decide whether to demonstrate and promote it on a large scale.

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