How the farmers plant shui xian hua
the fall
Farmers harvested the shui xian hua bulbs in September. They took the big bulbs, the ones ready for sale to barns where they get special treatment to help them bloom well.
Then they replant the smaller bulbs, most about two years old. These bulbs go into the ground pretty randomly, an inch or so apart.
They'll be dug up again next year.
Farmers within sight of Mount Yuan grow the best, the most genuine Chinese shui xian hua bulbs
Here are the fields those farmers have plowed.
The earth is ready for making the raised beds and rows within the beds for the farmers to plant the bulbs.
See the mountain in the background?
There's also a stack of rice straw that the farmers will use to cover the beds later. This conserves moisture and protects the bulbs from clill during the mild Fuzhou, Zhangzhou winter.
The farmers prepare the fields by digging these trenches. They will put individual bulbs one by one into these trenches by hand.
The rows of bulbs are perpendicular to the irrigation ditches between the raised beds.
The farmers replant the medium sized bulbs, still too small to sell.
These go about six inches apart to give them room to bulk up for next year's market.
After farmers plant the beds, they prepare them for the growing season by leveling them out. Then the farmers flood the trenches between the raised beds.
Now the farmers wait for the irrigated beds to grow the big shui xian hua that are in demand all over the world.
