Ice Age: I can control plant growth

Chapter 68 Have you ever seen a potato as big as a basketball? (Please order first!)
January 2025, 1, the first day of the new year.

This is the first New Year after the Ice Age, but it is foreseeable that it will not be the last.

On the twelfth floor of the City Lord's Mansion, Li Mu slowly opened his eyes, and what came into his sight was a deep darkness.

Li Mu looked at the mechanical watch on his wrist, the pointer pointed to six o'clock, and he couldn't help but smile.
"It seems the hangover didn't affect my biological clock."

After getting dressed and getting up, Li Mu looked out the window. The sun had not yet risen and the sky was still dark, but Wanling City was already brightly lit.

From afar, one could see many residents hurrying along the small roads throughout the city.

Seeing this, he whispered to himself, "It turns out I'm not the only one who wakes up early."

After taking a few steps to the bathroom and washing up briefly, Li Mu tiptoed to the restaurant on the first floor.

In the kitchen, several not-so-tall figures were busy preparing breakfast.

Seeing Li Mu coming in, one of them immediately greeted him warmly:
"Good morning, Lord Mayor."

Li Mu responded: "Good morning, Aunt Wang."

Although Li Mu was somewhat resistant to the title "Lord City Lord", thinking that it reminded people of officials in the old society, others had already gotten used to the title, so Li Mu no longer forced others to change their words.

In fact, Li Mu had repeatedly requested Aunt Wang and other residents to call him by his name "Li Mu" or "Mr. Li", but the residents felt that these names were too common and not enough to express their respect for Li Mu, and they insisted on calling him "Lord City Lord."

Under the insistence of the residents, Li Mu finally compromised.

"Auntie Wang, what's delicious for breakfast today?" Li Mu walked to the food pick-up area and asked curiously.

"Today's breakfast includes meat buns, cabbage buns, rice porridge, fried dough sticks, and various barbecued meats."

"Please go sit at the table and I'll bring you whatever you want to eat."

Aunt Wang said to Li Mu with a smile while wrapping buns.

Li Mu smiled when he heard that. "Please do your own thing. I can get whatever you want to eat. There are so many people here. Can you guys still handle it?"

Li Mu and his two companions have big appetites, so Aunt Wang and her family have to prepare enough food for more than a dozen people every day.

Now that we have brought back the parents and relatives of the three people, there is more food to cook.

Li Mu was worried that Aunt Wang and the others were too busy, so he asked specifically.

"I can handle it. It's just cooking. It's the same whether you cook for one person or a hundred people. It's not a big deal."

Aunt Wang answered very easily, and it sounded like preparing meals for a dozen people was not a difficult task for them.

After hearing Aunt Wang's answer, Li Mu stopped asking questions, turned around, took a dozen buns and a large bowl of rice porridge, plus a plate of pickles, went to the dining table, and slowly began to eat.

After eating more than a dozen buns and a large bowl of rice porridge, Li Mu only felt three-quarters full, so he stood up again to get some more barbecue, as he could not fill his stomach with just these.

"oi"

"Old Li, you got up early enough!"

Ah Sao greeted them as he walked slowly down the stairs.

"It's just a little earlier than you. Why don't you sleep in now?"

Li Mu looked at Ah Sao in surprise. He remembered that Ah Sao used to like sleeping in. On weekends, he would never get up until noon.

Ah Sao smiled bitterly when he heard this.

"How can I sleep? I have so many things to do now. If I sleep in again, my mother will whip me."

Li Mu shrugged, showing a helpless expression.

After taking two plates of barbecue, some bread and green onions, Li Mu returned to the dining table.

He flattened the dough, put the grilled meat and scallion slices in the middle, and brushed it with a layer of salty sauce. Li Mu started to eat it bite by bite.

At this time, Ah Sao also walked to the dining table and sat down.

"Old Li, you seem to be in a good mood today." Ah Sao said to Li Mu with a smile while eating buns.

Li Mu smiled slightly, looked at Ah Sao and said, "On the first day of the new year, there should always be some new atmosphere. Besides, we had such a great time drinking last night, how can I not be happy?"

Ah Sao nodded and said, "Yes, I did enjoy drinking to my heart's content. I haven't been drunk in a long time. I slept well last night."

"Hey, what do you mean by having a good night's sleep? Why are you feeling lonely and intolerable?"

Li Mu raised his head and raised his eyebrows teasingly.

"Indeed, I feel a little lonely. Would you like to introduce me to a girlfriend?"

Li Mu thought that this teasing would make Ah Sao embarrassed, but he didn't expect that he would admit it generously.

Although this may just be a joke on his part, sometimes the truth is often said in a joking way.

Li Mu shook his head in embarrassment and did not answer, but he remembered this in his heart.

Yu Shuaikang and Yao Chengcheng are both grown up already, it's time for them to find a girlfriend.

Even after Li Mu finished his breakfast, he didn't see Yao Chengcheng coming down. According to his physique as a third-level source warrior, he should have sobered up, but he hasn't gotten up yet. He must have been tripped up by other things.

However, Li Mu did not care about these. The three of them had a clear division of labor, and Li Mu had his own things to do.

His only concern now was how to prepare food for the upcoming two thousand people.

Originally, the city had sufficient food reserves, enough to feed more than 400 people in the city for more than two months.

However, life is always full of uncertainties, and the sudden arrival of the second wave of disasters completely disrupted their plans.

Li Mu understood that the crops in the rice fields had only been planted for half a month and there was still a long time before they matured, which could not solve their urgent needs.

Eight days later, all the 2,000 people who were transferred will arrive. With this population, the originally sufficient food reserves will not be able to sustain for a few days.

For the time being, Li Mu could only ripen a batch of grain first to ensure that these people would not starve.

Assuming 200 grams per person per day, 2,000 people consume about 400 kilograms of staple food every day.

However, to store such a large amount of food in a short period of time, it is necessary to choose a high-yield crop.

The only crop that meets this condition is potatoes.

Although the per-acre yield of Milo is higher, the largest proportion of it is the radish below, and the rice above only accounts for one-fifth of the total output, about 800 kilograms.

Moreover, eating radishes cannot fill your stomach because 90% of a radish is water, and only half of the remaining 10% is carbohydrates.

Therefore, radish can only be used as a vegetable or fruit, not as a staple food.

But potatoes are different. The yield of potatoes per acre can reach 1,500 kilograms, and they have a higher starch content, giving them a strong sense of fullness.

The potatoes produced on one acre of land can meet the consumption of two thousand people for about four days.

There was not much vacant space in Wanling City, so Li Mu came to the underground city that had not yet been built.

He had already dug out several hundred square meters of open space here. As long as it was expanded, it would be a good place to serve as a granary. Once he had made up his mind, he started digging. Li Mu controlled several vines and began to dig continuously. While digging, he used trees to fix the dug space to prevent the soil from collapsing.

When there is too much soil, the soil is transported to the ground.

Just like that, in just two hours, he expanded the area of ​​only a few hundred square meters to more than three thousand square meters, which is approximately the size of five acres of land.

This space is parallel up and down, with a distance of three meters between them.

Every hundred meters, Li Mu firmly fixed the upper space with a modified banyan tree.

The ground is covered with a ten-centimeter thick vine floor to prevent moisture from returning.

After completing all this, Li Mu evenly spread the soil he had left behind on the ground to make fields.

Compared to directly initiating growth in the air, sowing seeds in the soil can save Li Mu a lot of energy.

The next step is to spread the potato seeds evenly on the soil.

That’s right, seeds.

Many people only know that potatoes are planted in pieces, but they don’t know that potatoes actually have seeds.

Moreover, planting with seeds is not only efficient, but also does not require cutting and has a high harvest coefficient.

Using the block planting method, one acre of land requires about 200 kilograms of potato tubers, and the harvest is about ten times that of the potato tubers.

But if you use seeds, you only need two grams, and the yield is higher.

Besides, Li Mu didn't have the time to divide the potatoes into pieces. It wouldn't take much of his energy to just grow seeds from the potatoes.

After sowing the seeds, Li Mu mobilized his source energy, and his hands began to shine green light as he walked, and he slowly spread the green light toward the land.

As Li Mu walked, green light spread over every potato seed in the five acres of land. With the injection of green light, the potato seeds began to germinate and grow rapidly.

In just a short while, the potato vines grew to more than half a meter high, but this was not the end.

Driven by Li Mu's thoughts, the seedlings continued to grow until they grew into tall small trees.

Just by looking at the huge seedlings above, you can tell that the potatoes below must not be of normal size.

That’s right. Li Mu had no plan to plant ordinary potatoes from the beginning. That kind of potato was only the size of an adult’s palm and the yield per acre of land was only 1,500 kilograms.

And when they are ripe, they have to be picked and piled aside before the next batch is planted.

This method is time-consuming and laborious.

So why not just grow a giant potato?
According to this idea, Li Mu increased the output of source energy.

With the help of this powerful source of energy, the roots of the potato vines began to produce jaw-dropping giant potatoes.

These giant potatoes are as big as basketballs, and there are as many as seven or eight of these huge potatoes under each seedling!

However, such a transformation consumes too much energy. After two hours, when Li Mu had ripened all the potatoes in an acre of land, there was very little energy left in his body.

In this way, the remaining potato vines can only be ripened after his energy source is restored.

With a sigh, Li Mu turned around and returned to the ground. The next harvest would have to be done by others.

Through the perception of plants, he found Yao Chengcheng at the farm.

At this time, Yao Chengcheng was checking the progress of poultry breeding. Li Mu was also interested in this, so he started chatting with him.

“What is the current survival rate of these poultry?”

Li Mu looked at Yao Chengcheng and asked.

"The survival rate of poultry such as chickens, ducks and geese is 90%. We bought more than 200 of them, but only 30 or 40 died, which is a relatively good situation.

As for sheep, pigs and cattle, the survival rate was even higher. We bought more than 20 of them, but only two died.”

Yao Chengcheng replied happily.

After all, these poultry and livestock are related to the future meat supply of Wanling City. The more they survive, the more they can reproduce in the future.

Take chickens and pigs as an example.

A chicken can lay 120 to 250 eggs a year. Taking the middle value, it is 185 eggs. If the hatching goes smoothly, hundreds of chicks can be produced in a year.

A chick can grow to about six kilograms in a year if it is fed normally.

A sow reproduces two to three times a year, and normally gives birth to eight piglets in one birth. The piglets reach sexual maturity after four to five months and can be bred again.

A pig, if fed normally, can grow to about 300 kilograms in a year.

Although the number of these poultry and livestock is not large now, as long as they are fed well, the number can increase dozens of times in a year!
"Since the survival rate is very high, we need to be more careful in the future and make sure the keepers pay attention to hygiene and don't pass on germs or anything like that to them."

"Someone in the village used to raise these, and if they accidentally got bird flu or something, basically all of them would die."

Li Mu warned Yao Chengcheng carefully.

Yao Chengcheng nodded upon hearing this, and then asked,
"Why did you come to see me? What's the matter?"

Li Mu replied, "Two thousand people have to be relocated. I thought the food in the city might not be enough, so I created a batch of giant potatoes in the underground city.

I have used up all my energy to grow these potatoes, so now I need a group of people to pick them and see how many pounds they are and how they taste. "

"That's no problem. I'll go gather some people right away."

Yao Chengcheng smiled slightly.

"I have grown five acres of potato seedlings, but only one acre has produced potatoes. Please tell the people who are harvesting potatoes to be careful not to damage the seedlings that have not yet produced fruits."

"No problem, I'll keep them informed."

Yao Chengcheng agreed again.

Then the two parted ways. Yao Chengcheng went to gather people, while Li Mu returned to his room in the City Lord's Mansion and began to practice to restore his energy.

Three hours later, with the help of the dragon blood tree, Li Mu's energy recovered to about 80%.

It was already past one in the afternoon, and Li Mu came to the restaurant again and started his lunch.

In order to meet the needs of Li Mu and the other two, the restaurant in the City Lord's Mansion will be open from six in the morning to eight in the evening.

During the fourteen hours, meals are always provided, and whatever you want to eat can be prepared on the spot.

After another hearty meal, Li Mu returned to the laboratory and began to think about how to build enough houses for two thousand people within eight days.

When Wanling City was first built, the total population was only more than 300 people.

When there were not many people, he naturally chose to build an exquisite tree house. But now there are more than 2,000 people and time is tight, so building a tree house is obviously not a wise choice.

Thanks to Ran Xinglu, Bear's Life, The Youth Who Will Never Die, You Ling, Wu Bai Mars, If the Hurricane Will Derail, and book friend 20180521092645158. Please rest assured that I will remember the reward before the release, and I will not give less!
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(End of this chapter)