How to grow rice

Pick a field where rice did not grow last season if you can — a break with a legume or vegetable starves rice pests and RYMV of a host, and cuts down weedy rice.

Walk the field, bunds and channels and pull or hoe out any volunteer rice and grassy weeds before they seed — these are where the virus and the gall midge hide over the dry season.

Flood-and-till (paddy) or plough early (upland) to sprout a first flush of weeds, then destroy it before you plant — this 'false seedbed' empties the weed bank.

Never carry seed, straw or mud in from a field known to have red/weedy rice — that is exactly how it spreads to clean land.

Buy certified seed in a sealed, labelled bag from a registered dealer, showing the variety name and this season's packing date. This is your guard against seed-borne blast, blight and virus, and against weedy red rice.

Match the variety to your system: an upland (rain-fed) variety if you have no standing water, a lowland/paddy variety if you flood. Ask for a short-season type where rains are short or unreliable. Your recommendation names the type and the seed rate.

Buy enough fertiliser for your field: a compound (for phosphorus P and potassium K) and urea (nitrogen) to go in together at the basal dressing, plus more urea for the two nitrogen top-dressings later in the season. If your recommendation lists zinc (zinc sulphate), buy that too — flooded paddies often run short of it. Your recommendation gives every amount.

Store seed and fertiliser dry, off the floor, away from food, water and children. Keep the label and receipt in case the seed grows poorly.

Flood the field and let it soak for about two weeks if you can — standing water sprouts and then drowns a whole flush of weeds before you ever plant.

Churn the wet soil to a soft, even mud (puddling) with a hoe, plough or animal-drawn puddler — this smears the soil shut so it holds water and gives seedling roots an easy grip.

Level the mud as flat as you can — drag a plank or log across it, then check by eye that no humps break the surface of the water. Flat ground means even water and even weed control.

Build up and patch the bunds (mud walls) to at least a hand-span high (20 cm), press them firm, and plug any rat holes or leaks so they hold water without seeping away.

Sow the nursery about three weeks before you plan to transplant. A patch roughly a tenth of your field's size raises enough seedlings for the whole field.

Soak the seed in water for about a day and drain it — some let it just start to sprout — so it comes up fast and even.

Make a wet, well-worked mud bed and sow the seed thickly but not piled up. Keep the bed just moist to shallowly flooded — not deep water, which rots young seedlings.

Guard the bed from birds and snails, and pull out any weedy red rice or grassy seedlings while they are tiny and easy to tell apart.

Seedlings are ready at 15–21 days old, about a hand tall with 4–5 leaves. Young seedlings root fast and tiller well; old, tall ones sulk after moving.

Spread well-rotted manure or compost — dark, crumbly, no strong smell — evenly a week or two ahead and work it in. Fresh manure burns young roots and brings weed seeds.

At the final land prep (the last day or two before planting), spread the basal compound (the P and K fertiliser) together with the first nitrogen split — about half the season's urea — evenly over the field. Your recommendation gives the amounts.

If your recommendation calls for zinc (as zinc sulphate — flooded paddies and limy soils often run short), spread it now with the basal. Zinc put in at planting heads off the shortage before the young crop ever feels it.

Work it into the mud or soil — in paddy, puddle it into the top layer; in upland, rake or hoe it in. Nitrogen left on the surface of a flooded field is lost to the air within days.

Do the final levelling right after, so the fertiliser is mixed evenly through the rooting layer.

Paddy — transplant your 15–21-day seedlings the same day you pull them, so they never dry out.

Set 2–3 seedlings per hill, a hand-span apart each way (about 20 × 20 cm), in straight rows — straight rows make weeding and walking far easier all season.

Push them in shallow — no deeper than your first finger-joint (2–3 cm) — into only about 3 cm of water (two finger-widths). Planted deep, they tiller poorly.

Upland — direct-seed into the fine, moist seedbed at the rate your recommendation gives (roughly 60–100 kg for a hectare), in rows a hand-span apart or evenly broadcast.

Cover the seed shallow — about 2–3 cm — and firm the soil so it sits snug in moist earth and comes up evenly.

Make sure the basal nitrogen is down in the mud or soil beside the plants, not sitting on top where it is lost.

Twice a week, walk right across the field in a big 'W' so you cover the corners and the middle, not just the edge by the path.

Snails: look for bright pink egg clusters on stems, bunds and weeds just above the water, and for seedlings cut off at the base and gone. They do the most harm in the deepest, warmest water.

Blast: look on the leaves for small grey-green, eye- or diamond-shaped spots with brown edges — the first sign of blast, and worse where nitrogen is heavy.

Gaps: count the dead hills and bare patches, so you know whether to gap-fill.

Weedy rice: watch for seedlings that look like your rice but grow taller and faster — rogue them out early.

If snails are cutting seedlings → crush the pink egg clusters, drain to shallow water, and open the snail guide. If blast is spreading → ease off the nitrogen and open the blast guide.

About a week after planting, walk the rows and find the dead hills, thin spots and bare patches.

Paddy: lift spare seedlings from your nursery (or from the thickest hills) and transplant 2–3 into each gap, at the same hand-span spacing.

Upland: drop a few fresh seeds into each gap if the soil is still moist and the crop is only a few days old.

Do it in the cool of evening and keep the water shallow, so the new seedlings settle in without stress.

Paddy: keep only a shallow layer, about 3 cm (two finger-widths), over the field for the first two weeks.

Let it fall to damp mud between top-ups rather than pile it deep — shallow water helps seedlings root and tiller.

Upland: keep the topsoil moist but never waterlogged; water every few days in dry spells, more often on sandy soil and in heat.

Check the bunds and inlets after rain, so the paddy doesn't suddenly go deep and swamp the young crop.

Twice a week, walk the 'W' and look closely at tillers and leaves right across the field.

Gall midge: look for a tiller pulled into a long, hollow, silvery tube like an onion leaf ('silver shoot') in place of a normal leaf blade — that tiller will never head.

Stem borer: tug the central leaf of a tiller — if it slides out dead and brown (a 'deadheart') while the outer leaves stay green, a borer is inside.

Blast: look for grey, eye-shaped leaf spots with brown edges spreading and joining up, worst on the darkest, most heavily-fed plants.

Weeds: check for barnyard grass — it hides by mimicking young rice almost exactly — and for weedy red rice standing taller than the crop.

Zinc shortage: about two to four weeks after planting, look for rusty-brown spots and blotches on the older, lower leaves — often spreading up from the leaf base and along the midrib — with new leaves pale between the veins and whole patches stunted and slow to tiller. It bites hardest in flooded paddy and on limy (high-pH) soils.

If many tillers show onion-leaf tubes or deadhearts → note it, keep the crop clean, and plan a resistant variety next season (open the gall midge / stem borer guide). If blast is spreading → ease off the nitrogen and open the blast guide. If the crop is bronzing with zinc shortage → spray a zinc (zinc sulphate) foliar feed, drain the paddy for a few days to air the soil, and top-dress zinc if your recommendation gives it.

Start weeding by about 2–3 weeks after planting, before weeds outgrow the rice, and again a few weeks later — keep the crop clean right through tillering.

Upland: hoe or hand-pull between and within the rows, taking weeds out by the roots; work shallow near the plants so you don't cut rice roots.

Paddy: keep a steady, even shallow flood — this is your best weedkiller — and hand-pull or run a rotary push-weeder between the rows for the rest.

Pull barnyard grass and weedy red rice by hand — no weedkiller can separate these grasses from your rice, so lifting them out before they seed is the only sure way.

In upland fields, leave the pulled weeds lying between the rows as a light mulch to hold moisture.

Apply the mid-tillering nitrogen — about a quarter of the season's N, the amount your recommendation gives — at roughly 2–3 weeks after planting, while the crop is actively tillering.

Paddy: drop the water to a thin film or damp mud first, spread the fertiliser evenly, then re-flood a day later — this traps the nitrogen in the mud instead of losing it to the water and air.

Upland: spread it evenly when the soil is moist (after a weeding or a light rain), and hoe or rain it in.

Spread it evenly across the whole field — streaks and skips give patchy, uneven growth.

Paddy: raise the water to about 5 cm (four fingers) and up toward 10 cm (a hand-width) as the tillers grow — enough depth to keep weeds down.

To save water, use a safe AWD cycle: after the flood soaks in, let the water level fall to about 15 cm below the soil surface before you re-flood back to about 5 cm. A cheap gauge makes it easy — sink a perforated tube or an open length of bamboo into the mud and watch the water drop inside it, then re-flood once it is about 15 cm down but the soil is still moist, not yet cracking. During tillering this costs no yield.

Upland: keep the topsoil moist; never let the crop wilt during this fast-growth stage.

Keep the bunds sound and the depth even, so every tiller gets the same water.

Twice a week, walk the 'W' and check the emerging and flowering heads closely.

Neck blast: look for a black-brown rotted band on the neck just below the panicle, with the head above it dead, whitish, and often bent over — the most damaging blast of all.

Whiteheads (borer): look for whole panicles standing upright, white and empty while the rest are green and bowing with grain — tug and the stem pulls free, cut through by a borer.

Rice bugs: look in the early morning for shield-shaped bugs on the heads and for grains that are flat, spotted or empty; a foul smell over the field is another clue.

If neck blast or whiteheads are spreading → keep the water on, add no more nitrogen, and open the blast / stem borer guide. If rice bugs are on the heads → open the rice bug guide.

Apply the panicle-initiation nitrogen — about a quarter of the season's N, the amount your recommendation gives — as the head begins to form, roughly 6 weeks (around 40 days) after planting.

To check the timing, split a main tiller near the base and look for the tiny green, feathery panicle, about the size of a rice grain, starting inside — that's the moment.

Paddy: drop to a thin film of water, spread evenly, then re-flood after a day so the nitrogen stays locked in the mud.

Do not exceed the recommended amount — extra nitrogen here brings neck blast and lodging, and no more grain.

Paddy: hold a steady flood of about 5 cm (four fingers) right through heading and flowering — do not let it dry out now, even to save water.

Stop any alternate wet-and-dry cycle for this stage — keep continuous water from panicle initiation until flowering has finished.

Upland: water is now the top priority — irrigate to keep the soil moist through flowering, never letting the crop wilt, even for a single day.

If water is short and you must choose, water at flowering first and let the other stages wait.

Start scaring the day the grain goes milky (press a grain — a milky liquid comes out), and keep it up every day until harvest.

Guard from a raised platform at the worst times — early morning and late afternoon — when the flocks feed hardest.

String scare-lines across the field — rag or cloth flags, old tape, rattling tins — and move them often so the birds don't get used to them.

Net small or seed plots if you can, and clear roosting bushes and tall weeds around the field.

Plant and guard with your neighbours — a lone ripe field in a green landscape draws every bird for miles; fields that ripen together share the pressure.

Once a week, look over the ripening heads and the standing crop.

Rice bugs: in the milky stage, check in the early morning for shield-shaped bugs on the heads and for empty, spotted grains; a foul smell is a clue.

Lodging: look for patches leaning or flattened after wind or rain, worst where the nitrogen was heavy — heads lying in water rot and sprout within days.

If a lodged patch is nearly ripe → harvest that part early rather than let it spoil in the mud.

Once the grains in the lower part of the heads are hardening, stop adding water and open the bunds to let the paddy drain.

Aim to have the field drained and firming about 7–10 days before you expect to cut.

Upland: keep the soil moist through the milky stage, then simply let it dry down as the grain hardens.

Don't drain too early — cutting off water while many upper grains are still soft and milky shrinks and chalks the grain.

Check ripeness first: the head is ready when about 80–85% of its grains have turned straw-gold and the grains low on the head are hard when you bite them (about 20–25% moisture). The top grains ripen first, the bottom last.

If most heads are still green, or the lower grains are soft and milky → wait a few days and check again — cutting green gives chalky, light grain.

Cut the stalks with a sickle in the cool of the day, a handful at a time; cut high (just the heads) or low (whole straw), as you prefer.

Stack or lay the cut crop to dry briefly — about a day — with the heads shaded from harsh sun, before threshing.

Thresh by beating the heads against a bar, drum or wooden rack, or by treading them, onto a clean tarpaulin or mat — never bare ground, which mixes in soil, stones and damp.

Winnow off the empty grains, chaff and dust in the wind, so only clean, filled grain goes on to dry.

Start drying within a day (24 hours) of threshing — wet rice left in a heap heats, moulds and turns yellow fast.

Spread it in a thin layer on a clean tarpaulin, mat or hard floor — never on bare soil, which pushes damp and dirt back into the grain.

Turn it every hour or so, with your feet or a rake, so it dries evenly top and bottom.

In fierce midday heat, cover or shade it for the hottest hours — drying too fast and hot cracks the grain so it breaks when milled.

Bite test: the grain is dry enough (about 14% or below) when it cracks and shatters rather than bends between your teeth.

If the grain still bends or dents instead of shattering → it's too wet; keep drying and re-test before you bag it. For grain you'll keep as seed, dry a little further (to about 12%).

First be sure the grain is fully dry — a grain shatters, not bends, when bitten (about 14%; 12% for seed). Damp grain sealed up will only mould.

Store clean, dry grain in hermetic (airtight) bags — such as PICS bags — or a clean, sealed drum or metal silo. Airtight storage suffocates weevils and grain moth with no chemicals needed.

If you must use ordinary sacks, keep them off the floor and away from the walls in a cool, dry, airy store, and mix in a recommended grain protectant.

Keep seed rice separate, in its own labelled hermetic container, dried that bit harder, so it stays alive to plant next season.

Check the store once a month for heating, moths, or grain dust with small holes (weevils) — act early if you see them.