I See through Everything

「New Year’s Day.」

His brother-in-law, Zhang Xincheng, and his sister, Jiang Xia, who had secretly returned to Magong from the Gannan and Qiongzhou Branches, were also at Jiang Miao’s house.

The family was gathered around a beef hot pot.

Jiang Miao took a sip of soda water. "Brother-in-law, how are things at the Gannan Branch?"

"Keji and Liu Changqing, who went over last month, have settled in together. Keji is now in charge of the branch’s specific internal affairs, while Liu Changqing is responsible for things like communicating with the locals." His brother-in-law picked up a piece of morchella, which had just recently entered small-scale production.

"Good. Keji is just a bit too rigid, which makes him better suited for internal management. With him there, we at least don’t have to worry too much about internal problems at the branch." Jiang Miao turned to his sister.

"Sis, how are things over in Qiongzhou?"

His sister picked up a napkin and wiped her mouth. "Right now, we’ve bought eight orchards in Yuecheng, Ledong County, and Baoting County, with about 3,700 mu of durian trees. As you instructed, they’re all old trees that are already in their fruit-bearing stage."

"3,700 mu?" Jiang Miao nodded slightly. "What’s the progress on grafting?"

"Siwen has been on top of it. He’s incredibly diligent. Before I came back, about 1,370 mu had already been grafted. He estimates all the grafting work can be completed before the Spring Festival."

"That’s good." Jiang Miao was relieved.

With so many old durian trees, they could start scheduling the grafting from this March.

This was because the first batch of 1,000 genetically modified silk floss tree seedlings, which began tissue culture last October, had been growing for a total of three months and were now generally 1.8 to 2 meters tall. The second batch, consisting of 100,000 seedlings, began tissue culture in mid-November. They had been growing for a month and a half and were now generally around 0.9 to 1 meter tall.

And just this month, a third batch of 3 million seedlings was now being cultivated through tissue culture.

As the scale of the tissue culture operation expanded, it had clearly exceeded the production capacity of the current 50-mu tissue culture lab. Fortunately, the 1,000-mu smart greenhouse in Red Grass Town was now ready for use.

The smart greenhouse could be used as a tissue culture lab, so the task of cultivating the genetically modified silk floss tree seedlings was handed over to the Red Grass Town smart greenhouse base.

After growing for three months, the genetically modified silk floss trees would soon reach their maximum height of about 2.4 to 2.6 meters. Then, they would start diverting nutrients to their lateral branches and main trunk, effectively shifting from vertical to horizontal growth.

A genetically modified silk floss tree that had grown for three months basically met the requirements for grafting.

Starting this month, the first batch of tissue-cultured, genetically modified silk floss tree seedlings were already being grafted onto ordinary beautiful silk floss trees.

The planting and grafting process was as follows: three months after an original beautiful silk floss tree was planted, it could be grafted with the genetically modified silk floss tree. After this first graft, it would undergo another three months of healing and growth, after which it would be ready for the second graft—the one with an old branch from a Monthong durian tree.

Durian trees typically flower for three months each year: December, January, and February.

Therefore, the old durian branches grafted this year would not be able to flower and bear fruit. The Qiongzhou Branch’s original Durian Plantations had also implemented flower control measures, removing all of this year’s blossoms. The goal was to force the durian trees to use their nutrients for growing branches rather than for flowering and fruiting.

This approach actually had its advantages.

Since the trees didn’t flower or fruit this year, all their nutrients went into growth. This would lead to more extensive flowering at the end of the year, and there would be more sufficient nutrients available for fruiting next year.

Jiang Miao was very clear on this year’s durian planting schedule, which would roughly be:

’First batch (1,000 GM silk floss trees): Grafted in January, second graft with old durian branches in March, flowering by the end of the year, fruit setting next March, and fruit maturing from next June to August.

’Second batch (100,000 GM silk floss trees): Grafted in March, second graft with old durian branches in June, flowering by the end of the year, fruit setting next March, and fruit maturing from next June to August. However, only 50% of the total fruit yield could be kept.

’Third batch (3 million GM silk floss trees): Grafted in June, second graft with old durian branches in September, flowering by the end of the year. However, to ensure quality, all the flowers must be removed. Therefore, this third batch will not bear fruit next year; they will have to wait until the year after, meaning they will bear fruit in 2027.

’The maximum domestic durian yield per mu is about 2,000 kilograms. By using the genetically modified silk floss trees as rootstock, Hailufeng Company’s durian yield per mu can reach about 3,500 to 4,000 kilograms.

’With 100,000 durian trees planted at an average of 45 trees per mu, they can cover about 2,222 mu.

’Calculating with a 50% retained fruit yield, the 2,222-mu Durian Plantation can produce 3,888 to 4,444 tons of fresh durian.

’By 2027, the total production capacity will skyrocket by 50 times, reaching 190,000 to 220,000 tons.

’Will this production capacity affect domestic durian prices?

’The answer is no.

’Because in 2024, the country imported 1.5 million tons of fresh durian.

’Moreover, the reason durian consumption is only 1.5 million tons isn’t because domestic consumers don’t eat it, but because the price is too high.

’If the retail price of fresh durian could be pushed below 30 Hua Yuan per kilogram, the national consumer market could reach over 7 million tons.

’This data was the conclusion reached by the market research department.

’This is because Siam consumes 220,000 tons of durian annually, which is 3 kilograms per capita, at an average price of 12 to 31 Hua Yuan per kilogram. Meanwhile, Siam’s per capita disposable income is only about 60% of that in this country.

’By that logic, if China’s 1.4 billion people consumed 5 kilograms of durian per capita, the total would be 7 million tons.

’Don’t think 5 kilograms of durian is a lot.

’With a Monthong durian’s pulp yield of 25-50%, 5 kilograms of fresh durian provides only 1.25 to 2.5 kilograms of edible pulp.’