At 5:30 in the morning, it was just dawn, and Tantai Cogas was already riding an electric bicycle on the field trails of Luyuan Cooperative. There are three things in the cart basket: a yellowed farming record book, a portable microscope, and a bottle of diluted Paenibacillus polymyxa inoculant - these are his "three favorites" for dealing with crop diseases.
The cooperative's solar greenhouses are lined up along the river bank for two miles. The easternmost shed No. 3 Is the main tomato production area and is the first stop of Tantai Cogas today. As soon as I reached the entrance of the shed, I heard the voice of farmer Uncle Wang crying: "Tantai technician, look at it! It was fine yesterday, but it's all wilted this morning!"
Tantai Kegas walked into the shed quickly, and a hot and humid breath hit his face with a slight rotten smell. The tomato vines that were supposed to be laden with green fruits were now drooping in patches, and the green between the leaf veins faded to grayish yellow. When touched with the hand, the leaves drooped as if they had no bones. He squatted down and pulled away the roots of a diseased plant. Brown water-soaked spots spread up the stems, and his fingertips could feel the slimy feeling inside the stems. This was a typical tomato bacterial wilt disease, known as the "invisible killer of soil-borne diseases." Once it breaks out, the entire tomato shed may die within a week.
