novelsite Chapter 47 Vegetable Planting Platform
Chapter 47 Vegetable Planting Platform
At 6:30 a.m., as the sky was just beginning to lighten and the warehouse area was still shrouded in a gray-blue mist, the LED plant growth lights in the fourth carriage of the Longyuan were already on, simulating the gradual spectrum of dawn.
"I've had enough sleep!" Lin Luo'er held her thermos, which contained freshly brewed mint tea, the warm steam rising onto her face. She blinked hard, her eyes still a little sleepy but exceptionally bright. "Today we're finally going to officially set up the vegetable planting platform! I counted the seeds again last night, and I was so excited I almost wanted to get up again."
Her voice radiated joy as she spoke; her pure enthusiasm for creating life and building systems seemed to warm the chilly morning carriage. Wang Zhengyang looked at her, momentarily lost in thought—in the bleak world three years after the apocalypse of his previous life, such vibrant and captivating eyes had almost vanished.
"Have all the seeds been pre-treated?" He snapped out of his thoughts and asked calmly.
"Yes, yes! We followed the procedures strictly!" Lin Luo'er nodded vigorously, pulling out her waterproof notebook, which she always carried with her, from her work pants pocket. The pages rustled as she turned them. "Look, this is the planting list: for fast-growing leafy vegetables, we have Rosa lettuce, cream spinach, and arugula; for fruit vegetables, we chose dwarf cherry tomatoes 'Sweet Million' and fruit cucumbers 'Breeze'; for root vegetables, the most crucial ones are carrots 'Crimson Giant' and potatoes 'Early Rose', as well as two types of sweet potatoes: honey sweet potatoes 'Yanshu 25' and purple sweet potatoes 'Jishu 18'!"
She rattled off the details with obvious familiarity, her eyes sparkling under the grow lights: "Honey sweet potatoes are sweet and sprout quickly, making them perfect for a rapid energy boost; purple sweet potatoes are high in anthocyanins, which are antioxidants and make them an excellent functional food in enclosed environments. I've also reserved space for yam cultivation; these nourish the spleen and lungs and are an excellent ingredient for therapeutic purposes."
Wang Zhengyang listened quietly, quickly assessing the situation: the addition of sweet potatoes and potatoes was indeed a crucial step. Root crops provide more sustainable carbohydrates, have a long shelf life, and are relatively flexible in their light requirements, making them a valuable staple food supplement in the enclosed environment of a train. This girl's considerations were even more comprehensive than he had anticipated.
"Have the medicinal and spice plant areas been planned?" He walked toward the already installed vertical cultivation racks.
"It's all planned out!" Lin Luo'er quickly caught up and flipped to another page in her notebook. On it was a hand-drawn diagram of the zones, drawn in different colored pens, the lines neat and clean like printed blueprints. "This is the medicinal section: mint (two varieties: spearmint and peppermint), aloe vera, calendula, and lavender. That's the spice section: rosemary, thyme, basil, and scallions. Rosemary not only adds flavor, but it also has invigorating and memory-enhancing effects, making it especially beneficial for people who work in enclosed environments for long periods."
Pointing to the planting schedule on the blueprint, she said, "I've calculated the light requirements, growth cycles, and crop rotation schedules for different crops. This ensures that leafy greens can be harvested every ten days, root vegetables mature in batches, and medicinal and spice plants are readily available. What we're building isn't just a vegetable garden, but a continuously functioning micro-ecological supply system."
Wang Zhengyang nodded. These medicinal plants would be a valuable medical resource reserve in the apocalypse, capable of treating minor injuries and illnesses and reducing reliance on modern medicines such as antibiotics. Lin Luoer's plan had gone beyond simple "growing vegetables for survival" and she was consciously building a sustainable survival support unit with resilience against risks.
The two began working.
At eight o'clock in the morning, the first rays of sunlight finally pierced through the warehouse windows. Lin Luo'er put on sterile gloves and carefully used a special seeder to precisely sow the first batch of lettuce seeds—those tiny brown granules smaller than sesame seeds—into the pre-soaked coconut coir substrate. Her movements were as gentle as if she were placing a newborn baby, and the placement of each seed was carefully considered.
"First row, A1 to A4, cabbage and lettuce, sowing complete," she whispered into the voice recorder at her collar, then checked the boxes on the tablet's planting management software. "Next is column B, butter spinach. Spinach seeds need to be covered with soil a little deeper, about 1 cm..."
A 0.53% mechanical affinity circulated smoothly within Wang Zhengyang's body. He didn't participate in the actual sowing; instead, he stood in the shadows at the junction of the carriages, his gaze sweeping over the already nascent planting compartments like a scanner. Six-story-high vertical cultivation racks extended along both sides of the carriages, each equipped with independent adjustable-spectrum LED lights and precise drip irrigation lines. At the center of the carriage was the nutrient solution circulation hub, where three labeled stainless steel storage tanks were connected to each cultivation trough through a complex yet orderly spiderweb of pipes.
"Final calibration of the lighting system is complete." Li Xiaowei, who is in charge of the electrical system, looked up at the control panel in the corner. "The spectral parameters of all LED light groups have been set: 30% blue light at 450nm to promote leaf growth; 45% red light at 660nm to promote photosynthesis and flowering and fruiting; 10% far-red light at 730nm to regulate photoperiod response; and the remainder is full-spectrum white light to complete the operation. Daytime operation mode activated—currently simulating the summer solar radiation curve of the Berlin area at 52 degrees north latitude, with the peak light intensity set at 1200 μmol/m²/s."
As she pressed the control button, the LED light panels, starting from the front of the compartment, lit up with soft yet bright light, quickly filling the entire planting chamber. Almost simultaneously, the water circulation system beneath the cultivation trough emitted a low, steady hum, and the pale green nutrient solution began to flow slowly and steadily along the transparent pipes.
"The first stage of sowing is complete." Twenty minutes later, Lin Luo'er straightened up, gently patted her lower back, and wiped non-existent sweat from her forehead with the back of her gloved hand. "A total of thirty-six cultivation troughs, with leafy vegetables accounting for fifty percent, root vegetables for thirty-five percent, and medicinal and spice plants for fifteen percent. If the temperature, humidity, and nutrient solution parameters remain stable, the first harvest of leafy vegetables is expected to be possible in twelve days."
Wang Zhengyang nodded. His mechanical affinity, like invisible threads, subtly extended and seeped into every metal component, pipe, and joint in the carriage. He could "feel" the ceramic impeller of the centrifugal nutrient pump rotating smoothly at 2850 revolutions per minute; he could "hear" the faint hum of the high-frequency transformer inside the LED driver, judging that it was working well; he could even predict that the 90-degree elbow at the outlet of the No. 3 storage tank might experience slight fatigue after two months due to long-term vibration, requiring reinforcement in advance.
"The system is very professionally built," he unusually affirmed, "but there may be external interference today, so stay vigilant."
"Interference?" Lin Luo'er turned around, her hands still covered in brown coconut coir substrate, a look of confusion on her face.