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I like toput something in the seed growing media to lighten the soil like perlite or sand. I was thinking of using something cheap buy organic! It just may work better than most other things to make soil hold water and stop from cruting! Why rice? My idea is rice absorbes water and softens so it will hold the water even after the soil is dry feeding the roots and also bacteria in the soil! It would be like little compost all through the mixed soil! I will give it a try!.
There are probably lots of things like rice that will work like a very small noodle used in soups! Ground up leaves depending on the type seems to b good also. What soil mix out of the ordinary have you tried? Even white sand seems to help the seedlings by reflecting light to the under leaf just like perlite does! I remember 30 years ago I used styrofoam bbs which are about the size of a bb and I had one of my best tomato flats ever! Styro foam is bad because it blows away in the wind after its set into the garden!

Rice would quickly rot and encourage the growth of fungi that cause damping off. I like to add some well composted wood chips to my seed starting media. Rotted wood has plenty of the good bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi that help to protect seedlings from damping off.

I can't remember what site I was on but there was a video where a man had grown 8 tomato seeds in a seed starting soil but had added different things to each one to compare results. The tomato that grew the best was one he had added chunks of dried corncobs. The second best was grown with a few larger chunks of aged, just starting to decompose, wood. These were grown in 1/2 gallon paper milk cartons. I don't remember the rest of the things he tried nor the site I was on but I'm going to look for it as it was interesting.

I did no knon that rice would grow right out of the bag! I could boil it for a few seconds to make it absorbe water better! I never saw rice grow when it was soaked. I never grew rice so I don't know what it looks like growing! If that is true why I it not used as a cover crop since the seeds are cheap!

LA47 wrote:I can't remember what site I was on but there was a video where a man had grown 8 tomato seeds in a seed starting soil but had added different things to each one to compare results. The tomato that grew the best was one he had added chunks of dried corncobs. The second best was grown with a few larger chunks of aged, just starting to decompose, wood. These were grown in 1/2 gallon paper milk cartons. I don't remember the rest of the things he tried nor the site I was on but I'm going to look for it as it was interesting.

Here is the Youtube video I posted earlier.
Corn cob seedling mix
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkKvlgyPoRc

Eric

bobber - you always tell us your ingenious ideas BEFORE you test them. If you do try this, be sure to come back and tell us how it worked out for you.

You seem to have a couple concepts jammed together here. The idea of things like perlite/ vermiculite in potting soil is literally to lighten the soil, make it less dense, keep it from packing down, provide channels for water to drain through to improve drainage.

Peat moss in soil is to help hold water.

The rice might start out a little like the perlite, but would quickly soften up and start absorbing water and then start breaking down and/or sprouting. You might end up having planted a bunch of rice plants in your container, especially if you soaked the rice first. That might not be what you want, if you wanted to grow other things in the container. But I agree that there's a good chance the rice would just rot and you wouldn't necessarily want a bunch of rotting/ composting rice in your containers.

White/polished rice has no germ so they won't grow.

Quick cook rice are pre-cooked/steamed and dried so they wont grow either

Some but not all brown rice can sprout/germinate but %germination seem to depend on freshness of rice grains (right now Asian markets have packaged rice marked "new crop") and/or whether they were heat dried and at what temp. Cheap brown rice contains more green/unripe/immature grains which of course won't grow.

Rice has naturally occurring yeast that is red. So don't be surprised if that's what end up growing.

Good point about the rice being pre cooked.I guess I will have to just try it with several crops and plant others beside it without the rice! I am thinking the rice will hold water for the roots to absorb and disapear by the time the plants are ready to transplant! Rice may be taste for some of the organisms to keep them away from the roots! 50 years ago people never thought what works today was a option to them but they never tried it!

You don't use it as a cover crop because like previously mentioned their will be sprouting issues and it needs to grow in a flooded field. Do you really want to flood your garden for a cover crop?

I am putting this rice in my seed starting mix. I will try it with radish next week and plant two containers and see how they look in two weeks. I will report. I really think the rice will airate the soil and if you put worms in your mix I think theywill like the soft rice! I thought this forum was about ideas and methods used over the years.
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What some people do may be new to another area of the country so no matter how stupid it sounds if it works we want to know or try it ! Right? I mentioned radish as a cover crop weeks ago and I have found out that many people do use radish as a cover crop since its a quick growing plant!

I use rice hulls sometimes usually for mixes that go in one gallons. Works great for seedlings. Cheap, doesn't rot like rice. I get a 4c.f bag for like 5 dollars. Enough to mix a lot of soil.

Rice will also draw nitrogen away from your seedlings as it try's to decompose. Making for unhealthy seedlings.

Where can you buy the hulls!

The Animal feed store carries them around here.

Thanks I will check with tracror supply. I planted a large box of lettuce, cabbage and naturtiums together today and put a layer of rice a inch below the soil and a few areas of rice over the soil! We will see what happens!

Thanks for re-posting the sight, Eric. I bookmarked it this time.