Rice Paddy Rain Garden Guild 2010

[applestar]

Latest photos of my little rice paddy
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image7893.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image7889.jpg[/img]

Yesterday, I broadcast some clover seeds -- trying crimson clover this year. I have white clover everywhere but I don't have seeds on hand. This is a protected SW side of the house so crimson clover has a better chance to overwinter. It's a wee bit early -- late August is how I have the schedule written down and the paddy may still get too flooded.... If nothing else, the clover may grow on the mulched path immediately surrounding the paddy. I'll still have time to re-seed if this batch doesn't grow.

[gixxerific]

Looking good Apple. I love the idea of growing things like rice that most people wouldn't even think about.

You are doing a fine job there, keep it up.

[applestar]

Thanks!

I'm eventually going to try growing most of the small grains. Only in small plots like this for now.

I'll sow winter rye here in the rice paddy this fall. I'll find out if the variety and growing season allows for it to grow to maturity since rice will be up and growing by end of April.

I have a bed earmarked for oats early next spring, and I'll sow triticale this fall in one bed that, depending on when it's ready for harvest, will be grown to maturity... or not. It'll be followed by hot peppers beans and corn. Around here, beans and hot peppers can be planted by late May and last corn is supposed to be planted before mid June.

[applestar]

Here are some recent photos:
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image8094.jpg[/img]

Some clumps started to lodge (fall over) after a particularly windy day so I used some bamboo poles to keep them from falling over completely.
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image8098.jpg[/img]

It seems like they're ripening faster this year. Was it hotter? Drier? Or contrary to conventional wisdom, direct seeded rice grows faster than earlier-started and transplanted rice?

Unfortunately, this year -- most likely again, due to drought and lack of other wild food sources -- chipmunk has discovered my rice bed. It thinks I put the bamboo there for it to sit on
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image8116.jpg[/img]

I put my two indoor kitties in the fenced area enclosing the rice bed and the tomato bed (the chipmunk got into some lovely ripe tomatoes as well They had grand old time chasing the chipmunk a couple of times out of the enclosure and once up the tomato/luffa/gourd/bean trellis, in addition to thoroughly exploring the area and leaving their scents (I really had no concern that they would catch the little beast ). I had hoped that the kitties had impressed upon the chipmunk that the area was off-limits, but later, when DD brought one of the kitties out again, she immediately jumped into the fenced area and chase the chipmunk out of the rice bed.

So even though some of the rice is still in milk stage towards the bottom of the sheafs (is that what they're called? seed heads...) and the foliage and stems are still green, I decided to harvest 2/3 of the bed. I discovered that there were some stalks already severed from the plant. I'm not sure if that happened while the kitties were thrashing through the rice or if the pesky chipmunk is actually clever enough to cut the stalks and pull the seedheads down.

I'm behind in camera uploads so I'll post those photos later.

Although 1/2 way convinced that I'm merely feeding the chipmunk, I scattered some rye seeds, spread some compost, and scattered rice straw left over and saved from last year in the harvested area, and scattered some additional rye seeds and compost under the remaining rice.

[applestar]

Photos of rice harvested 9/15:
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image8124.jpg[/img] [img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image8126.jpg[/img]

Remaining rice:
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image8127.jpg[/img]

9/23, seeing that the chipmunks were continuing to harvest the rice ahead of me, I decided to harvest the rest.

[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image8152.jpg[/img] [img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image8154.jpg[/img]

It turned out to be the right decision because last year, the fall rains arrived while I dithered and the paddy got flooded while I was trying to decide when to harvest. This year, after couple of warnings last two weeks, the sky opened up last night, rained all night and all day.

Here are close ups of the seed heads -- 1/2 or more of the rice grains are missing from each
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image8126.jpg[/img] [img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image8155.jpg[/img]

I scattered rye and rice straw in the rest of the paddy. I'm applying the concept of "overseeding with a winter (cover)crop" to the rest of my garden. I'm excited by the prospect.
...

There's a photo I want to take and share with you -- I hope I'll get to it before it's too late. For the last couple of weeks, when I look down on my "Sunny Meadow" each morning from the upstairs window, I see GIANT pumpkin flowers. These are the biggest pumpkin flowers I've ever seen. I honestly can't remember what kind of seeds they were, but, in spring, I tossed a "veggie seed mix" such as described by MF -- a combination of mixed beans, squash, wildflowers, mustards and radishes. I didn't do anything more except to cut/pull some of the longer grass, scatter on top, and trample on them (This is in keeping with my "taking the place of grass foraging animals in the meadows" that I talked about elsewhere.). Two obvious survivors were California #5 Black-eyed Peas and this pumpkin: particularly welcome since my other pumpkin vines planted in garden beds succumbed to SVB's in early summer. It has at least one oblong fruit that's about 8" long. If there are any others among the wildflowers, I've no idea.

[GardenRN]

That looks reall neat! how much rice did you actually get for your efforts? If non had been eaten, how many servings would you have gotten? Rice is one of those things I have thought of growing but figured you'd have to have a small field of it to even make it worthwhile.

I wanted to dig out a paddy, line with plastic, and the back fill with dirt to prevent the water from just soaking into the surrounding ground. Fish would be a must in my area! Mosquitoes would be horrible. They're already bad here and I don't know where they're coming from.

[soil]

I grew rice this year with a different method. dry farming rice. without the paddy, I only had a small 10x10 spot and got a hell of a lot more rice than I could have ever expected.

I got some real rare rice seeds for next year, they are supposed to do far better with dry fields and yield more.

as far as meals go thats hard to say because one serving to one person could be 3-4x what another would have. lets just say ive been eating rice for a while now and I still have a good amount to go.

well worth the fun and effort if you like growing odd things. everyone sure got a kick when I told them what was in front of them was rice plants.

the one thing that stands out most is quality, this rice tastes AMAZING.

[!potatoes!]

did a 'highlands' dry-field rice this year on the mountain I was living on...north-face at ~3500 ft. didn't quite fill out before frost, nothing worth harvesting

[Tonio]

Wow Apple !! Sugoi naa.

I'm late to the party on your rice growing endevour, but I must say I am impressed. I did not go through the whole thread, but it appears to be a success.

Somewhere in there you wondered about transplanting or direct sowing as a means of faster growth. I must say - growing up in Northern Honshu, and in suburb Tokyo they (Japanese) put out seedling starts. Of course, as you know , every micro climate and situation may differ.

Just wanted to extend my congrats and admire your efforts.

T

[Artemesia]

Applestar

I have been researching and hope to try my hand at dry land rice.
The research I have found says you can use a double transplant method to grow rice in cold climates.
And you can mulch instead of using water.
Supposedly, rice actually does better when not flooded.
Flooding is used only to control weeds.
If the yield is so high when hand grown, it may be worth it.
I need grain crops as a disease break in my garden anyway.
Especially when rice is one of the few grains that does well when nature decides to give us constant rain.
With global warming, I think we are going to see more of those kinds of extremes.