Subject: Re: rice, what is the key to growing this?

From: James Eason <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1996 21:50:06 GMT

jay wrote:
> 
> do i really need a moist enviroment to grow rice?
> 
> thanks

Yes, you do need moisture. Lots of it.

There's an interesting discussion of rice in "On Food and Cooking", 
a book by an author whose name escapes me at the moment, Harold 
something or other. I'd be willing to bet that my old stand-by (not 
at hand) Wyman's also discusses it.

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From: James Eason <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 1996 19:47:49 GMT

Cathy wrote:
> 
> I have a wet area on my land.  Do rice plants look nice?
> (I can't remember, don't they look sort of like wheat?)
> 
> Hmmm.  Maybe I'll try that over there.
> 
> - Cathy
My memory of rice plants (seeing them from a distance while whizzing 
by on the interstate) is that they're green. They look like grass. 
They are totally and absolutely uninteresting, unless you're a rice 
farmer.

I have done a little digging (so to speak). Most modern rice 
varieties (it's unclear to me whether the original species still 
exist(s)) require standing water to germinate. They require some 
moving water around their roots to live, because their roots 
apparently can get oxygen only from moving water. Even 
mountain-grown rice, alleged by connoisseurs to be better, is grown 
in terraces that hold water. If you have a small shallow pond (3 
inches or so to a foot it looks like in the pictures), and don't 
want to grow any of the marvellous petastites and gunneras and 
ligularias and rodgersias, not to mention water hyacinth, water 
lilies, irises, sedges, lobelias, cat-tails, forget-me-nots, 
primulas and other things that love a bit of a bog, go ahead!

BTW, modern rice fields in the US are apparently sown with tiny 
plants by airplane. Sounds cool to me: no more digging.....

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From: George Shirley <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 1996 19:52:16 -0800

> plants by airplane. Sounds cool to me: no more digging.....

Unless they've changed the way they do it the airplanes are actually 
dropping seed, then fertilizer, then pesticides, then herbicides.  I 
still have pesticide spots on my lungs from waving off the crop dusters 
at the tree line as a kid.  The farmer shoots levels on his rice field 
(at least in Texas and Louisiana)with a laser transit, brings in the air 
conditioned tractors and harrows, levels it with a slight drop to the 
outflow canal side, then puts up his dikes, floods the field, and calls 
for the airplanes.  California, I believe, leads in U.S. rice production 
followed by Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas, not necessarily in that 
order.  I can still look at a field of rice growing and tell you how much 
gravy it will take to cover the crop.

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 00:14:36 GMT

>They are totally and absolutely uninteresting, unless you're a rice 

You've been away from Louisiana too long, James. Or maybe you just
didn't get close enough to the rice fields to see individuals. Rice
can be quite beautiful, particularly when it is blooming or fruiting.

>apparently can get oxygen only from moving water. 

No, rice doesn't require standing water to germinate. I speak from
experience. One year a friend brought me several bales of rice straw.
We used the straw that winter to make a star-gazing bed that kept us
warm when we burrowed into it and lay on our backs to watch the stars.
That next Spring I moved the straw to other garden areas, and the rice
seed that remained produced a beautiful stand of plants. We eventually
harvested several paper sacks of grain, all without flooding or
paddies.

The main reason that Louisiana farmers flood their rice fields for
part of the season is to keep competition from other plants down. Rice
can stand water-logged soils, but most 'weeds' cannot.

As for the 'original species', there are many species or forms
(taxonimists are an argumentative group) still in existence in
southeast Asia. There is even one kind that grows (wild) in several
feet of water in bays and is harvested from boats!

I would certainly never recommend that anyone use all (or even most)
of their pond or wetland space for growing rice, but I do think the
plant lovely enough to deserve more consideration than it usually
gets. A pot or two, strategically placed, can add grace to any garden.

Harold
Covington, LA
USDA Zone 8B

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From: [email-masked] (Beverly Erlebacher)
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 1996 19:29:47 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Marion Margoshes) writes:
>
>Where are you geographically?  I would love to see rice growing in Maine, 
>or even in 
>Chicago!!!! mbm 

About 20 years ago, when Johnny's Seeds was just starting, they offered
a northern Japanese rice that they managed to grow in Maine.  

A couple of years ago Organic Gardening magazine had a cover story on
backyard rice growing.

One of these years I'm gonna grow rice in a bucket on the patio...

Beverly Erlebacher
Toronto, Ontario Canada
USDA Z5b AgCan Z6b

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From: [email-masked] (R Louis Besse)
Date: 4 Mar 1996 21:42:55 GMT

But, surprisingly, rice does not need to be grown in paddies 
of standing water.

I read a book a while back about a Japanese organic gardener 
who didn't use standing water, but I've forgotten the name.  
Since then, there have been Japanese agricultural experts 
down here (Louisiana) advising the rice farmers how it's 
done.

The problem with not using paddies, however, is this: where 
are you gonna raise your crawfish? :-)

- RL         ([email-masked])
"We possess only this moment in which to continuously 
dedicate ourselves to the sacred presence which we share and 
create."

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From: Marianne Ahrne <[email-masked]>
Date: 7 Mar 1996 12:13:32 GMT

>Yes, you do need moisture. Lots of it.

What about Japanese dry paddy? Not that I know anything about it,
but in my salad days I worked as a volunteer with slash-and-burn
cultivation in Sri Lanka (Ceylon then), helping a Japanese agronomist
to clear land for "dry paddy", although we planted onions first. 
I didn't stay long enough to see how much water would be needed for
the rice. There was a serious water shortage in the area, but it
could be flooded by means of a 1000 year old irrigation system at least
in some seasons, but would never give standing water.

Marianne Ahrne
Uppsala, Sweden

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From: [email-masked] (Bob Carter)
Date: 11 Mar 1996 20:37:45 GMT

A while back Organic Gardening magazine had an article on growing rice and they
said that while rice does need a moist environment.  Flooding was mainly done to
reduce weed competition.  Also a properly weeded and tended unflooded patch
would actually yeild higher than its flooded counterpart.

   ____________________
  |                    |
  |    Helene Carter   | Kootenay Bay, BC, Canada
  |  [email-masked] | Zone 6b
  |____________________|