Chapter 109: Don’t Put Words in My Mouth—I Never Said That (A Quiet Request for Subscriptions)

“The fermentation period must be more than seven days. It may go longer, but it must never fall short.”

“Remember: if you are fermenting soy milk by itself, you must pair it with a small amount of monopotassium phosphate.”

As Zhong Di filtered the liquid, he explained the points that needed attention during fermentation. Even if Shao Hong had a poor memory, constant reminders like these would still leave him with enough to remember.

“Why do we need to use monopotassium phosphate? Aren’t we trying to reduce fertilizer use?” Shao Hong suddenly had more questions about it and asked with curiosity.

It all felt contradictory. One moment they were talking about green production, and the next they were using fertilizer. To Shao Hong, the whole thing seemed thoroughly at odds with itself.

He no longer seemed to know what the right approach was.

Zhong Di paused. Why did he pause? Because he did not quite know how to explain it either.

Using fermented soy milk together with a small amount of monopotassium phosphate was not his own idea. It had come from the Jujube Tree.

Don’t go pinning things on me, the Jujube Tree said. I never said that.

That was right. It was only after Zhong Di had read the Jujube Tree’s behavioral cues that he discovered the oversight—and only just now at that.

In short, if they used only fermented soy milk, the jujubes would eventually become somewhat bloated.

Simply put, they would swell up. The fruit might grow larger, but in terms of overall quality, the taste would be greatly affected.

If it were used during the fruit-setting stage, it would even interfere with fruit setting itself.

Fermented soy milk was rich in nitrogen, much like urea. It was beneficial to vegetative growth, but not to reproductive growth.

That “not beneficial” did not mean it was truly harmful; rather, the balance between nitrogen supply and the supply of potassium and phosphorus fertilizers was thrown badly out of proportion, causing the cells to swell, when in fact that growth carried little real nutrition.

Soluble solids, and other substances, would be affected as well.

What it would ultimately look like was puffiness. Fresh fruit might not seem to suffer much, and might even look better at first glance, but once dried, it would appear wrinkled.

And gray jujubes were dried fruit. Taste came second; appearance was what mattered most. If the fruit did not look good, it could not fetch a good price.

After thinking it over seriously for a while, Zhong Di decided to simplify his answer and give Shao Hong something straightforward and workable.

“First, you have to get one thing straight: green production does not mean absolutely forbidding the use of chemical fertilizers. It means not treating them as the sole source of nutrients, and keeping their use within a certain range.”

“There are standards for this. For example, if you want to use urea, you cannot exceed a certain amount, and you have to apply it a certain number of days in advance to avoid having too much nitrogen and causing nitrite levels to go over the limit.”

“Second, monopotassium phosphate was never intended for heavy use in the first place. On our roughly ten acres of land, we only used twenty-two pounds of monopotassium phosphate. Compared with fertilizer production as a whole, that amount is negligible.”

“Besides, using fermented soy milk all by itself can create some trouble for the current production process. I won’t go into the details. Just remember this: if you are fermenting soy milk alone, you must use it together with a small amount of monopotassium phosphate.”

“It’s like this: everyone knows pesticides are bad, and using fertilizer alone is bad too, so why is it still used in grain production?”

“Because that is the only way to guarantee output. Only when you have enough to eat can you talk about eating well. Of course, this example may not be the perfect one, so just remember the main point.”

Zhong Di explained patiently. There was no helping it. From now on, the orchard would be Shao Hong’s responsibility, and he had to make sure Shao Hong could master every procedure smoothly and carry them out properly and by the book.

“Oh. Then why, once brown sugar and the like are added, can it be used on its own?”

From Zhong Di’s explanation, Shao Hong had heard another answer. Zhong Di had said that pure fermented soy milk had to be used together with monopotassium phosphate, which meant that once brown sugar was added, it became possible to use it separately.

“Actually, I don’t fully understand that either. How should I put it? Brown sugar, as an extracting agent, can draw amino acids out of the soy milk. More precisely, it turns aggressive nitrogen into gentler amino acids.”

“These amino acids are already small-molecule organic compounds, and when combined with bone meal and milk, they naturally contain a variety of elements, so no single element becomes excessive.”

“It’s like how eating longan all the time will make you get internal heat, but if you eat bananas, strawberries, longans, dragon fruit, apples, and grapes, then you’ll be fine.”

“Well, maybe you’ll get diarrhea.”

Zhong Di spoke very quickly, trying to move past the subject. In truth, he could have explained it clearly: line up the data, talk through the nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium content, and then explain the relationships among them.

For instance, how potassium helps transport nitrogen, what phosphorus does, and what happens when the balance is thrown off.

But Zhong Di did not want to explain it that way. By the time he finished, a long while might have passed, and besides, there was no need to tell Shao Hong so much.

After asking a few more details, Shao Hong went off to drench the orchard with the fermented soy milk, while Zhong Di stayed in the garden and occasionally looked over some of the plans his older sister had drawn up.

After Zhong Di made his suggestions yesterday, his older sister had quickly come up with a number of ideas.

For example, setting up biometric trash bins at regular intervals and dividing waste into three categories: recyclable, biodegradable, and discarded waste. These categories also fit the kinds of trash that would realistically turn up in the farm setting.

In simple terms, recyclable waste referred to things like beverage bottles brought in by visitors. Biodegradable waste included banana peels and the wild or cultivated flowers picked from the orchard. The final category covered things like spicy snack bags and other wrappers, and the divisions were made very clearly. His older sister had even organized an activity in which parents would bring their children to participate in waste sorting.

Zhong Di had been left speechless.

Still, it was not a bad idea. It would give the children some environmental awareness and help create a positive cycle.

There were also biomimetic benches and similar additions. Beyond their basic function as places to rest, they would include couple seats and parent-child seats, no longer limited to a single uniform style but offered in many different forms.

Fortunately, they had widened the central path back then, and that had created convenient conditions for the renovations now.

On top of that, they planned to install graffiti boards along the middle path, so that both children and adults could draw on them, with the boards being replaced regularly.

All of these were low-cost investments that could increase interaction, and they were genuinely practical.

There were also plans for flower-arranging classes, and more besides.

As Zhong Di looked over these ideas, he could not help feeling deeply suspicious. Had his older sister perhaps been wasting her talent by studying accounting?

After he made those suggestions yesterday, her whole way of thinking seemed to open up. She put the ideas into action almost at once. Of course, a plan was only a plan; there was still some distance before implementation.

But Zhong Di could already see the day when they would succeed. What remained was nothing more than time and money. Once the ideas were in place, everything else could be solved.