planting
submersion
recovery and growth
almost through the entire length of oct, nov and dec, the pond has around 3 feet of standing water, i.e., the rice stalks were submerged continuously for this period.
during this time, their height was good enough and the stalks strong enough to keep their heads dry and above water.
as the water receded, the stalks started drooping and the heads were all in the slush.
we think we have a decent sense of what went wrong.
so the first rice attempt has been closed on the same note as the varagu.
rice is our current staple and varagu was planned to be our new staple.
4 comments:
Have you tried direct seeding of rice on the edge of the trenches of your mulched vegetable beds. That way they should have more water, and the wider spacing as recommended by SRI should lead to more tillers and yield. What rice variety did you plant? Most of the hybrids I believe are weak, and live within a narrow range of environmental conditions. You should try navare or njavara rice, a tall variety, yield is not much, but apparently this rice has medicinal qualities. Costs 400rs/kg in one of the online sources I checked.
Anyway most of your loss is due to drowning, so we have to wait for your next attempt. Any feedback on greenlocal's rice on raised beds? Rice is an interesting crop for natural farmers, success here could help avoid chemically polluting our land.
a - our beds require access from both sides and having rice will not be possible.
we tried a variety called nawabi kolam - given by bhaskarbhai save.
waiting for ragu-nisha's update on their ragi on raised beds.
for rice, we have to look at krishna at solitude farm in auroville. he is just about to harvest his first natural farming experiment with rice.
Alas the rice experiment did not click through as expected ! though rice can survive in stagnant water it needs a little bit draining off of water . I transplanted my first ever rice saplings in mid-Purattasi and my rice fields are flooded with water since 20 days of planting the rice. I am yet to see the outcome. Hope you wud give another try in the coming season which will not be affected by rains.
boovarahan - our second expt is still on and going decent. check for updates soon. and of course, we shall keep trying, may be not in the pond ;-)
i read you emails in the fukuoka farming list :-)
and we are planning to build a cottage with adobe bricks and more on that too soon.
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