Chapter 380: Seed Stability and Optimized Seed

Chapter 380: Chapter 380: Seed Stability and Optimized Seed

For the Iron Rooster to agree so readily, there could only be one reason: she hadn’t haggled hard enough to hit him where it hurt.

Xiaqing’s heart ached. She continued the discussion, "How much water does hydroponic spinach use?"

Yang Jin had already done his research. "Hydroponic spinach uses about 500 milliliters per plant, which is 10% of the water required for conventional soil cultivation."

Xiaqing did a quick mental calculation and proposed a second condition for their cooperation. "The spring water is limited, so the maximum scale for the hydroponics is 3,000 plants. Is that acceptable to you?"

Three thousand hydroponic spinach plants would require 1,500 liters of water, which was five days’ worth of output from the spring on Xiaqing’s territory. The Pollution-free Spring Water wasn’t just for her drinking; she also used it to water her chickens and sheep, soak seeds, and grow High Yi Element Spinach and other Green Light crops. Therefore, the scale of the Cordyceps Fungus cultivation couldn’t be too large.

Yang Jin nodded. "Of course. The growth cycle for hydroponic Cordyceps Fungus is four months. If all goes well, each spinach plant can produce at least 20 cordyceps sprouts. The selling price for the sprouts hasn’t been set yet, but it definitely won’t be less than 20 points each. The profit margin is quite substantial."

The Cordyceps Fungus cultivated from a single spinach plant could sell for a minimum of 400 points. With 3,000 plants, that was 1,200,000 points. After deducting costs, the profit was indeed high. Xiaqing smiled and nodded.

Yang Jin continued with the deal. "The germination rate for Green Light Spinach Seeds is two-thirds. So, to grow 3,000 hydroponic spinach plants, we’ll need 4,500 spinach seeds. You’ll need to contribute 2,250 seeds. This bag has exactly 2,250 in it. I’ll just take it, shall I?"

Xiaqing was speechless.

’How did this guy manage to count seeds while negotiating? Given how shrewd he is, he definitely picked out the biggest, plumpest ones for his bag, didn’t he?’

Xiaqing, still smarting from her weak haggling, wanted to call over her companion, Sheep Leader, and beat Yang Jin up, even though she knew that cooperating with him would earn her a lot of points.

Yang Jin placed the small bag of spinach seeds on top of the sealed bag of spinach seedlings and began to discuss the next transaction.

"I’ve acquired a nano-invisibility coating made with new materials. When applied to the surface of metal objects like blades, guns, cameras, and grenade launchers, it can evade conventional radar detection. This new coating is currently military-grade and not for public sale, so it’s ridiculously expensive—10,000 points per kilogram."

Xiaqing was speechless.

"You should consider this: your spinach seeds have very high stability. Unless you can increase the spinach’s Yi Element content, your seeds are at their peak value right now. A coating that costs 10,000 points per kilogram might sound expensive, but you can get it for just a small handful of spinach seeds. What do you say? Want to trade?"

Xiaqing was speechless.

"Brother Luo mentioned that you’ll be participating in the Green Dragon Team’s practical training this winter. You’ll be using our Speed Evolvers to practice long-range sniping, and you’ll also need us to provide equipment, right?"

Xiaqing was speechless.

"Gui San Base was destroyed, and a lot of used construction materials have hit the market. I got my hands on a batch of used stainless steel pipes that can be used to build greenhouses. Do you need any? The steel pipes for two large greenhouses would only cost you 200 spinach seeds."

Xiaqing was speechless.

"White Three Base has harvested their high-quality Green Rice. The Green Dragon Team is going to trade for a batch of Green Light Rice. It’s 400 points per jin. Our transport capacity is limited, so the purchase quantity is also limited. You can buy 400 jin at most. This rice is much better than the Yellow Light rice with a 13‰ Harmful Element content that our base’s military supplies. So, want to buy some?"

Xiaqing was speechless.

’Buy it! I’ll buy it! Everything you’re offering is good stuff, so I’ll buy it all!’

However, she asked, "Can’t I trade for White Three Base’s Green Rice?"

Yang Jin explained, "You can, but the price is higher. Besides, the cultivation requirements for White Three Base’s rice are very demanding. It can’t be grown directly in the territories here, so trading for the processed rice is more practical."

Hearing that she couldn’t plant it, Xiaqing felt a twinge of regret, but she also thought it was normal. After the evolution, there weren’t many damned Blue Star plants that were easy to deal with.

Except for her spinach, of course.

Although Xiaqing had traded with Zhang San for high-quality Yellow Light rice seeds, she wouldn’t be able to eat Yellow Light rice until after next summer’s harvest. Since Yang Jin had a way to get high-quality Green Light Rice, Xiaqing certainly wasn’t going to shortchange herself.

She was still at an age where her abilities could evolve, and eating more Green Light food was necessary to promote her body’s evolution.

"I’ll trade for 400 jin of Green Light Rice." Xiaqing didn’t lack points right now; she lacked high-quality food. It was a rare opportunity, so of course she would buy as much as she could.

"An excellent decision. When you have abilities, you should naturally eat the best." Amidst Xiaqing’s conflicted gaze, Yang Jin took another small bag of spinach seeds.

Xiaqing felt reluctant because these were the spinach seeds she had just harvested after months of hard work. But she was still happy to be able to trade for necessary supplies.

Seeing that Yang Jin had no other deals to discuss, Xiaqing mentally reviewed her plan and what she needed to say. She then began to propose a transaction worth nearly ten million points, intending to let him experience the feeling of spitting back out the points he had just earned from her.

"Captain Yang, do you know the stability of the High Yi Element Spinach that the Fiery Fire Team is cultivating?"

Stability, a critical indicator of seed quality after the great evolution of Blue Star’s lifeforms, refers to how many generations a plant seed can be stably cultivated. Generally, the lower a seed’s Harmful Element content, the higher its stability, and thus the higher its price.

During open-air cultivation, Green Light and Yellow Light Plants are affected by pollutants, Harmful Elements, and pests in the atmosphere, soil, and irrigation water, causing the content of Harmful Elements and other hazardous substances within them to slowly rise. During a Harmful Rain, the rate of increase accelerates, and can even skyrocket, turning them into Qiang Evolved Plants.

Therefore, in a cultivation environment that doesn’t isolate them from Harmful Elements, the Harmful Element content of the seeds produced will increase by 2‰ to 3‰ with each successive planting.

For example, take the Yellow Light cucumber seeds with a Harmful Element content of 8‰ that the Lords received when they left the Safe Zone this year. After the seeds were planted in March, by the time the plants bore cucumbers in May, their Harmful Element content had already reached 10‰ to 11‰.

During the second planting, they encountered the third and longest Harmful Rain of the past ten years of Natural Disasters. As a result, the Harmful Element content in eighty percent of the cucumber plants soared to 13‰-14‰. About ten percent of the plants reached or exceeded 15‰, becoming Red Light Plants that were immediately uprooted.

Cucumber seeds from plants with a 13‰ Harmful Element content could no longer be planted. This was because by the time the next generation grew to the fruiting stage, their Harmful Element content would have already surpassed 15‰, making them inedible.

Thus, most of the Yellow Light cucumber seeds the Lords received could only be cultivated for two generations. In the professional terminology of post-Natural Disaster agriculture, the Yellow Light cucumber seeds the Lords received had a two-generation stability.

However, this didn’t mean that after two generations, the Harmful Element content of all seeds would exceed 15‰. This was due to a widely confirmed evolutionary rule concerning the reproduction of evolved Blue Star plants:

The 1% Anomaly.

That is: of the seeds produced by a plant, 99% will have the same quality as the parent plant, while 1% will be different.

For this 1% of different seeds, the Harmful Element content could be either higher or lower than the parent plant. Among them, seeds with a Harmful Element content more than 3‰ lower than the parent were called "Cultivable Optimized Seeds." Seeds with a content less than 3‰ lower were called "General Optimized Seeds." Seeds with a higher content were called "Deteriorated Seeds."

The probability of these three types of anomalous seeds appearing is random, with no discernible pattern.

Taking a parent plant with an 8‰ Harmful Element content at fruiting as an example, 99% of the seeds it produces will also have an 8‰ content. Of the 1% of anomalous seeds, those with a content below 5‰ are classified as Cultivable Optimized Seeds. Those with a content between 5‰ and 8‰ are General Optimized Seeds. And those with a content above 8‰ are Deteriorated Seeds.

Researchers at the Planting Center select these Cultivable Optimized Seeds, propagate them, and thereby obtain seeds with more than two generations of stability to promote for widespread cultivation.