Chapter 150 Seed Processing
Dixia dripped the potion in mid-air onto another seed that she had just taken out. When the droplet landed on the surface of the seed, the faint red light it emitted was also mixed with an almost imperceptible hint of purple.
"This one is the same, it has two elements! We succeeded!" Dixia raised her voice excitedly.
"Don't be too happy too soon, Miss Dixia. Wait until the seeds germinate, the hybrid offspring grow up and start to produce nectar before celebrating your victory. According to the experimental records of the predecessors of Amyrido College, the hybrid offspring is very likely to die young," Harold poured a basin of cold water on Dixia.
He paused and explained, "This hybrid offspring not only refers to plants, but also animals. The situation is the same for both."
Dixia nodded. She was already used to Haroldt's way of suddenly interrupting with a popular science remark during normal conversations. For the new knowledge that seemed useless, she would listen silently and memorize selectively so as not to add unnecessary burden to herself.
After Harold finished speaking, he looked at the screen, held the teacup beside him accurately with his right hand, took a sip of tea, and continued:
"Soak the two seeds in cold water, then add hot water, raise the temperature to 80 degrees Celsius, and leave them in the hot water for five minutes. You have used the thermometer and the stopwatch, so you know where they are."
Dixia: "I'll get it."
She hurried to the laboratory again, and came back in less than two minutes, with a thermometer and a stopwatch, as well as a water boiler and a ceramic container in her hands.
"I'll go check out the other fruits."
After putting aside the equipment to be used next, Dixia said as she cut the other four fruits one by one.
But the result this time disappointed her. There was no seed in one of the fruits, and the seeds in two other fruits were completely shriveled and looked like they had no possibility of germination. She only took out three more seeds from the fourth fruit, and the diameters of these three seeds were still smaller than those of the normal fire-attribute deception flower fruits.
"What's going on?" Dixia asked.
"This means that we still need to adjust the attachment of elemental forces or the ratio of the two types of pollen," Harold was not surprised by the result.
"Another possibility is that the hybridization compatibility of the two types of lily flowers is average, and there may be problems with the development of the hybrid embryos...
Nine of the sixteen female plants had fertilized ovules, and the initial fruit setting was pretty good, but now we have only got two normal mature fruits... No, maybe the four fruits that have not fallen yet are more worth looking forward to.
——It’s useless to say this now, let’s deal with the seeds on hand first.”
Although Harold tried to slow down his speech and explain in detail, he used a lot of professional terms. Dixia was already dizzy. When she heard the order to "process the seeds", she actually breathed a sigh of relief and felt like she was "finally saved."
"Let me measure the various values of these seeds first." said Dixia.
"Okay." Harold nodded in response.
Dixia measured the maximum diameter and mass of the three seeds in turn and recorded the data in the experiment book. Then she soaked the five seeds in cold water.
"This is the first time I know that I have to soak the seeds in hot water before planting them." While waiting, Dixia finally had time to sigh.
Dixia: "I saw some tribes trying to farm in the desert. They chose the most fertile land in the oasis to plant vegetables, but those vegetables did not grow well. They were yellow and thin. Even if they could barely mature, the taste was very bad.
I've seen them soaking seeds, but I've never seen anyone use hot water, would that make the situation better?"
"Probably not, and not all seeds can be soaked in hot water. I will be back at the institute tomorrow, and I will bring you some books on the subject. If you are interested, you can read and study on your own.
Also, you can tell your mercenary group members that if they see desert people growing vegetables in the oasis, it is best to stop them, as it will damage the soil. As far as I can tell, the power of the earth veins in the desert is relatively weak, otherwise it would not have become a desert."
Harold added in his mind that this was also why Ms. Alice found the only oil field in the desert, and then he continued,
"...I guess they also use a lot of fertilizers to grow vegetables, right?"
This is what the members of the Tanit tribe in the game do, and there are definitely more than one family doing this.
"I'm not sure about that," said Dishia. She joined the Blazing Beast Hunters soon after she escaped from her father, and has been living with the mercenary group all along, so she doesn't know much about the lifestyles of some tribes in the desert.
"In short, if you plant things randomly, over time, even the most fertile oasis will turn into sand. Tomorrow I will bring you a few more books on this subject," said Harold.
"Okay, thank you. I'd like to take a day off... When you can handle it alone, I want to tell my companions about this information." Dixia said.
"No problem, everything will be fine for the next few days." Harold nodded.
Dixia fixed the thermometer, set the stopwatch, and then added hot water to the container until the water temperature reached 80C. Next, she let the temperature gradually drop to 30C. She added a certain amount of hot water occasionally within five minutes to prevent the temperature from dropping too quickly, and stirred from time to time to allow the seeds floating on the water to be heated evenly.
Seeing that all five seeds were floating on the water, Haroldt said nothing. He had already guessed in his heart that their growth and development were not good and the germination rate was very low. They would most likely not be able to obtain the desired results in this round of experiments.
Dixia didn't know all this. She worked hard to press five seeds into the water one by one to soak them. Watching the seeds rise and fall in the water, she actually found the process of soaking the seeds very interesting.
Five minutes later, she took the seeds out of the warm water and asked, "Is this all right? Do we need to dry them? Do we need to bury them in the culture soil after drying? Or do we need to place them directly on the culture soil? Do we need to bury them? If so, how deep should we bury them?"
"All right," said Harold.
"Which one is better?" asked Dixia.
Harold rubbed his forehead and said, "It should be about the same. I haven't studied it. If you are interested, you can test it next time you breed the Deceptive Flower."
Dixia: “Okay.”
Dixia placed five seeds into five petri dishes, and then moved the dishes to a room where sunlight could reach them.
After she came back, Harold asked her about the situation of the five fire-attributed Liarflower mother plants.
"I supplied them with elemental power as you said. They didn't return to the earth veins. They should be fine, right?" Dixia said as she pointed the light screen at the mother plant she had processed. The five deceitful flowers maintained a standing posture, and the detached receptacles showed signs of revival.
Harold nodded, told Dixia to focus on the other four results, and then cut off the communication.