Song Tan's Notes

Chapter 1665. The Arrangement of Earthworm Castings
Two jin for 9.9 yuan?
When I heard such pricing at Lao Song's place, I thought it was a very niche term.

But for Yunyun, it was already a very satisfactory price.

They looked it up online, and even big brands were priced the same.

Moreover, earthworm castings can yield several tons per acre, and if they become more skilled at it, or if the environment is improved further, they can produce even more.

That's why the express delivery fee is expensive. If you're a local, you can just bring a sack and scoop it up yourself, and it'll only cost two or three yuan per kilogram.

Next, two pounds of earthworm castings isn't much.

This thing is very sensitive to weight – these days, when businesses sell things by the liter, they are definitely light and bulky. If they sell by weight, then the quantity is definitely heavier.

In short, there is no such thing as a business that loses money.

But after thinking about it carefully, Song Tan felt that this positioning was quite reasonable.

A price of 9.9 is something that any gardening enthusiast would be willing to place an order for; the barrier to entry is low, and the order volume is high.

If used well, there should be quite a few repeat customers.

They produce earthworm castings every few months, so they really need repeat business from them.

But under the guidance of Party Secretary Xiao Zhu, she personally managed such a large area of ​​mountain forest land belonging to her family. Now, let's talk about the clouds:

"You've been working here for half a year, so you need to be more flexible. For your sister's situation, prepare all the necessary materials, apply for a shop permit, and see if it falls under agricultural supplies and if there are any subsidies available."

"Also, we should inquire whether this falls within the scope of agricultural assistance subsidies or the green channel for express delivery."

"Next, you need to confirm the shipping fee first."

It doesn't matter if the order quantity isn't confirmed yet. We can negotiate in increments of one thousand, three thousand, five thousand, and so on.

We need to reach an agreement before we can determine the approximate cost.

Unlike fresh produce, this isn't something you can just ask around at a few places and use whichever is the cheapest.

Moreover, rural express delivery stations rarely have such a large business.

Just like how Brother Zhang would try his best to reduce the delivery fee as much as possible in order to secure benefits for Lao Song's family.

If the cooperation is good, the courier company won't easily switch. If such order volume can be maintained, then naturally every courier company would want to win it over.

She made it sound simple, but Yunyun and Yunduo exchanged a glance and their eyes lit up, clearly already knowing what to do next.

As for whether the pricing is reasonable, and whether there will be repeat customers...

Qi Lin hesitated for a moment:
"If we're selling earthworm castings, it doesn't matter if it's early or late. How about this, I'll buy a few pounds first, and then I'll have my grandfather try planting them."

His grandfather grows leafy vegetables, so the effects of earthworm castings are seen more quickly.

Applying fertilizer by burying it in the soil will show results in two weeks.

If you spray the leaves, you can see results in a week. If there are other vegetable plots nearby for comparison, the effect will be even more obvious.

If the results are good, it will also make it easier for them to promote the product or service later.

The clouds even immediately thought of—

"I'll record videos while I'm using it! I'll also record the daily growth changes."

Yunyun patted her on the shoulder: "You should focus on your work. I used to do live streams all the time, I know how to do it."

This silly girl, she's still at work, what's the point of worrying about her all the time?
As for who will promote it...

Song Tan also smiled and said:
"Sister-in-law Yunyun, don't put so much pressure on yourself. As long as the things in the village are good, our Qiaoqiao is always willing to recommend them."

"Okay, you guys can start broadcasting then, and I'll have Qiaoqiao mention our village's live stream room on her side."

Despite the high social pressure, the number of people working in horticulture is actually increasing.

9.9 yuan is a price that many people can easily pay these days, so Yunduo's first batch of earthworm castings is not worried about sales at all.

Next, we'll look at the quality.

Logically speaking, the feng shui of Yunqiao Village should result in better output than that in the market, but it shouldn't be too exaggerated.

However, if they don't pay attention when feeding earthworms, the conversion rate of earthworm castings is not high enough, or the moisture content is too high during low-temperature drying...

Customers understand how to use it.

Upon hearing this, Yunyun and Yunduo both visibly breathed a sigh of relief!

Now the two of them were no longer in a hurry.

Yunyun laughed even harder: "No rush, no rush. We can just bag the earthworm castings and pile them up in the room. It doesn't matter if we wait a week or two to see the composting effect."

She was anxious before because her husband was obviously unsure about sales, and she was afraid of hurting his confidence.

Now that the Song family says so, what is there to worry about?
On the one hand, she felt a little annoyed: "I was too embarrassed to keep asking. If I had known earlier, I would have arranged it long ago."

The couple returned home satisfied.

That evening, 20 bags of earthworm castings were delivered to Grandpa Qi Lin's place.

Qi Lin said helplessly, "We don't need that many, just two packs will do."

Yunyun's husband is an honest man. Knowing that they had put in a lot of effort to get this technical guidance, he just smiled sheepishly.
"This isn't worth much. What's so valuable about earthworm poop? I'll bring some more next time."

As soon as he finished speaking, he unloaded the sack, turned around, and rode off with his wife on his tricycle.

Grandpa Qi Lin stared blankly at the large bag of earthworm castings on the ground:

"Didn't they say I couldn't apply chemical fertilizer to the fields?"

Qi Lin was both amused and exasperated: "This can be used; this is organic fertilizer."

……

It has to be said that there are advantages to being an honest person.

How did Qi Lin and the others arrange their previous guidance, and how did he implement it?

The earthworm castings have the right humidity for use, and the conversion rate is obviously sufficient, so it can be said that the purity is quite good.

No need for a week.

It is currently the rapid growth period for leafy vegetables. According to Qi Lin's plan, fertilizer is buried in one plot of land and foliar spraying is applied to another.

The one that was sprayed on the leaves showed a clear difference from the one next to it by the third day.

Yunyun has been setting up her phone in the field every day to shoot as many long videos as possible to take back home, and she's been speeding up the process by watching and editing them as she goes.

There's already a difference in the videos from day one until now.

Five more days passed, and a week later, the difference between the leafy greens on both sides became even more obvious.

The land that was sprayed with earthworm castings clearly had larger, greener leaves and more upright plants.

The fertilizer burial site hasn't shown any special effects yet, but the vegetables growing on it are thriving.

It's much better than that useless piece of land next to it; it clearly has potential.

She quickly sped up and shortened the video into a 3-minute clip, and immediately showed it to Qi Lin and the other two, as well as Song Tan and the others.

Does this mean our earthworm castings are up to standard?

Qi Lin also goes there every day, so he doesn't even need to look at the video results right now. He just points to a patch of land in the corner again:
“My grandfather grows fast-growing vegetables that need to be harvested every month, so the soil needs to be fertile.” “So it’s not like he doesn’t need anything at all.”

“Look at this corner, I actually bought manure from another company.”

You can compost it yourself, but the two diligent farm workers collect all the compostable materials on the mountain every day by tricycle.

Qi Lin didn't mind keeping a portion from the middle, but he felt it wasn't quite right, so he simply spent a little money to solve it online.

Now, the original three control experimental areas have been expanded to four. Under the same conditions, it is clear that Yunyun's earthworm castings are more effective as fertilizers.

Yan Ran went back and forth to check several times, and when she returned, she asked, "Have you dried, bagged, and sealed them all?"

Yunyun nodded quickly: "I've been prepared for a long time."

Tang Xiaodong pondered, "Compared to other brands, this fertilizer's effectiveness is about 20% higher. We sent it for instrument analysis, and the various fertilizer effects are also very balanced. Logically speaking, the price of 9.9 yuan for two kilograms is too low."

"But if you want to go any higher, I actually don't recommend it."

"Firstly, we can be considered a mixed brand – I heard you registered a brand called [Yunyun Fertilizer]? It's still not as good as those big brands."

"Secondly, even if the price has increased, there's still a difference between 9.9 and 11.9, between under 10 yuan and over 10 yuan. If you shop online frequently, you should know the difference, right?"

Yunyun understands perfectly well!
"We're just doing repeat business. The earthworm castings are available regularly. We mainly want to see some cash as soon as possible."

"If the price is set too high, why wouldn't people buy big brands? I understand. I asked the courier company, and they said they'd give me 2.8% off for orders over 3000. That means I'll earn even more than I initially thought!"

The main issue is that the weight of this bag is too high – earthworm castings will evaporate a little moisture during transportation, and some customers are very concerned about this tiny amount, so they put extra weight in each bag.

Regardless of whether this packaging was cost-effective or not, Yunyun and her husband were extremely satisfied.

Tang Xiaodong laughed. At that moment, the three fellow disciples exchanged glances and then said in unison:

"Alright! We can sell it now!"

Upload the video after the live stream, along with a simple analysis report; speeding up the video makes it more convincing.

Yunyun was overjoyed.

……

This is the first self-employed online business in Yunqiao Village!
Moreover, the track is quite unconventional!
It's like other people sell local specialties, while they sell packaging. Old Song's family sells delicious food, while the villagers sell vegetables and tofu...

Yunyun is selling earthworm castings!
Putting everything else aside, if we put a big cardboard sign on the roadside, those people who come to buy vegetables every week might actually grow their own flowers and vegetables!
When buying groceries, bring along a large plastic bag and scoop up a few pounds of earthworm castings. It doesn't cost much, but it spreads good word-of-mouth, and the long-tail effect is quite good.

And the villagers.

The three agricultural students repeatedly urged everyone to use more organic fertilizer, ecological fertilizer, and fermented fertilizer, and there were piles of fertilizer in front of each household.

But earthworm castings have a more balanced fertilizing effect, so if someone wants to improve the results even further, they might be willing to spend the money to buy them.

Look at Grandpa Qi Lin's plots of land, the difference is obvious when fertilizer is used, and the taste is still just as good!

Thinking about it this way, it seems to have great potential!
Village Party Secretary Xiao Zhu took it very seriously: "I'll do it! I'll communicate with the platform in the live stream room. Our village party secretary will do the live stream personally and see if the platform has any benefits such as traffic packages or recommendation slots to help farmers."

"Yunyun, prepare your online store link and link it directly to the live stream. Next time you have repeat customers, you won't have to go through all this trouble."

Qiaoqiao was once again burdened with a heavy responsibility, and at this moment she said with even greater determination:

"Sister-in-law Yunyun! Don't worry, I'll talk to the children properly!"

……

The children eagerly squeezed into the live stream room.

During this period, Qiaoqiao has been giving out a lot of perks, with potato blind boxes being dug up and a little bit of cucumbers and tomatoes being available every day.

Even if you can't get one today, can't you get one tomorrow?
Teacher Qiao Qiao said that there would be something every day until July.

But once July comes and I get busy, I won't have time for that anymore.

Everyone seized the opportunity and checked in very regularly, morning and evening.

But it's not even time yet, and suddenly it's started broadcasting, with a huge influx of fans flooding in. It feels like there's some unexpected surprise coming—

Let me see if I can spend the money today.

Whatever it is, please provide a link first.

I've already bathed, burned incense, and changed clothes today; if I still can't snag one, I'm going to cry.

Those who have already purchased but are not eligible should not join in; it makes our live stream seem crowded.

What goes around comes around. You're showing off in the group today, but tomorrow I'll make you all envious!

Everyone was cursing and complaining, and had a lot of grievances to vent.

However, Qiaoqiao has always been a straightforward person, and at this moment she held up the online store on her tablet in the live broadcast room, along with the live broadcast link that popped up below:

"Children, today I'm going with our village secretary to help the women in the village."

"She's selling her earthworm castings for 9.9 yuan per 2 jin (1 kg). Kids who grow flowers and vegetables at home can buy them."

After thinking for a moment, he added, "If you're not going to grow flowers or vegetables, don't buy it. This doesn't need fertilizer and has no other use."

Goodness, even without fish and shrimp, it's fine!

If you can't spend money at this store, spending it at another store will make you feel better.

Everyone gave them face and flocked over.

It's mainly because of Qiaoqiao's reputation; that kudzu root powder that only had a fleeting moment of popularity before was indeed much better than what's on the market.

It's a pity they won't be selling it this year; even in Xiao Zhu's live stream, the chat is already buzzing with complaints.
[Isn't this supposed to be about supporting rural farmers? Then bring the produce out!]

This livestream room is on my watchlist, and it's barely sold anything more than a few times in the past year.

Since people in the village are selling manure, can we sell vegetables and fruits too?

Exactly! Even if we can't buy Qiaoqiao's, we're happy to try the ones nearby!

Party Secretary Xiao Zhu and Yun Duo were both grinning from ear to ear as they watched the live stream comments, while simultaneously apologizing.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. Our village is still developing, and we have a lot of leafy vegetables that are difficult to transport, which is why they weren't put on the shelves..."

"Thank you all for your trust and support..."

She turned the camera around: "This is Yunyun, the owner of our village who makes her own earthworm castings. This is the first batch of earthworm castings, 9.9 yuan for two jin..."

Yun Duo had previous live streaming experience, but her fans were nowhere near as numerous, so the stream unexpectedly froze for a moment.

When she smiled, her expression was kind and pleasing to the eye. Although she was a little reserved, she seemed more like a simple country person, so her fans were quite patient.

Does 9.9 yuan for two pounds include shipping?

Is today's price a special offer? Will the price increase in the future?

What can earthworm castings be used for?

[I've never used this before, will it smell bad?]

I'd love to support Qiaoqiao, but I don't even have a potted plant at home...

Everyone was talking at once, clearly having successfully stayed in the live stream.

Here I am! Thank you for the generous donation, Qianqiu.