Subject: Re: [Homestead] Additional Rice Information
Date: Sun, 02 Nov 2008 10:28:47 -0600
On Sun, 02 Nov 2008 01:13:01 -0500
EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net> wrote:
Rice needs a minimum temp of 50-55 degrees to germinate
and grow.
During active growth, temps need to be near 75
Sounds like I will need to plant in the spring instead of
summer, that's when our temps are in this range. By May,
it's too hot. The seeds will have to go in production
about the same time as everything else--I'm wondering if
I'll have room in the green house. If my calculations are
correct (9 per sf), I would need 1,593 rice plants to fill
177 sf at 4 inches spacing. That would be about 25 flats
of rice plants! I'm wondering if I could use a hybrid
method with Fukuoka's and just seed directly.
He writes "Of course the usual method is to keep several
inches of water in the paddy throughout the growing
season. Farmers have been growing rice in water for so
many centuries that most people believe that it cannot be
grown any other way". According to him, "Rice plants grow
best when the water content in the soil is between 60 and
80 percent of its water holding capacity. When the field
is not flooded, the plants develop stronger roots and are
extremely resistant to attacks by disease and insects". He
only holds water for one week in June (that's Japan's
monsoon season) to kill dry-field weeds. (not sure what
month this would correspond to our respective climates).
He has already interplanted with clover, and the water
knocks back the clover, allowing the rice to get
established, and once it does, the clover fills in again
as a cover crop helping to retain the moisture in the
soil. I presuming he is using a short type of clover.
Using his method, the plants are more compact, making less
straw, but about the same amount of grain.