How to Grow Rice? Detailed Explanation of Planting Methods and Technical Key Points

Rice, that is, what is commonly called paddy rice, is the staple food for nearly half the world's population, and there are many regions in our country where rice is grown, so how do you grow rice?

1. How to grow rice?

To grow rice, you first need to prepare the land, then raise seedlings. After the seedlings are ready, transplant them at a certain spacing. During the rice growing process, you also need to manage weeding, pest control, fertilizing, watering, and so on.

1. Land preparation

Before planting rice, the soil in the paddy field must first be turned over. This process is divided into coarse plowing, fine plowing, and leveling. In the past, animal power and plows were used, mainly water buffaloes to prepare the land and plow the field, or machines were used.

2. Seedling raising

First, seedlings are cultivated in a certain field. This field is often called a seedling field. After sowing the rice seeds, farmers mostly spread a layer of rice husk ash on the soil; in modern times, specialized seedling centers mostly use seedling boxes to grow rice seedlings. Good rice seedlings are the key to successful rice cultivation. When the seedlings grow to about eight centimeters tall, they can be transplanted.

3. Transplanting

The seedlings are carefully transplanted into the paddy field at orderly intervals. Traditional transplanting methods use seedling ropes, seedling markers, or transplanting wheels. When transplanting by hand, a seedling separator is worn on the left thumb to help farmers separate the seedlings and insert them into the soil. The climate during transplanting is very important, as heavy rain can damage the seedlings. Modern times often use transplanting machines, but in paddy fields with large undulations and non-square shapes, manual transplanting is still needed. The seedlings generally run in a north-south direction. There is also the more convenient method of throwing seedlings.

4. Fertilizing

When the seedlings shoot up and grow the first rice stem, this is called the tillering stage. During this period, fertilizing is often needed to let the rice seedlings grow robustly and to promote the plumpness and quantity of the grain after heading.

5. Weeding and pest control

When the seedlings are growing, they must be cared for at all times, and weeds must be pulled out. Sometimes pesticides are also needed to kill pests (such as golden apple snails).

6. Watering

Paddy rice depends relatively heavily on this procedure. For upland rice, it is a dry field, and the irrigation and drainage process is different, but generally after transplanting, when the young panicles form, and during the heading and flowering stage, water irrigation needs to be strengthened.

2. Pest and disease control of rice

The three major diseases of rice are: rice blast, bacterial leaf blight, and sheath blight. Other important diseases include rice false smut, bakanae disease, downy mildew, and so on. The fundamental reasons for disease epidemics and outbreaks are: the proportion of high-quality susceptible varieties increasing, the number of physiological races of pathogens increasing, and changes in cultivation systems developing in directions favorable to the occurrence and harm of diseases.