Summary: Which is better for rice, direct seeding or transplanting, and which method is more suitable for farmers to use?

My hometown is in the Yellow River basin. Although it is located in the north, the irrigation conditions are very good, so rice is also grown locally. However, locally at present most people still use transplanting to grow rice, and direct seeding is still very rare. Here Science Agriculture believes that if you do not want to take risks, it is best to use transplanting to grow rice.

First, let me talk about direct-seeded rice cultivation.

Direct-seeded rice is a rice cultivation method that omits the step of transplanting rice seedlings. Seen this way, direct-seeded rice saves more time and labor, and is very suitable for the current situation of insufficient rural labor. At present, direct-seeded rice can adopt two methods: manual direct seeding and mechanical direct seeding.

Although direct-seeded rice is more labor-saving, there are more uncertain factors with direct-seeded rice. This is also a major factor in the unstable yield of direct-seeded rice, so if you do not want to take risks, it is still recommended to grow rice by transplanting.

Since the uncertain factors in direct-seeded rice have been mentioned, let me discuss them in detail here.

Although direct-seeded rice saves time and labor and can reduce damage to the rice root system during transplanting, its disadvantages cannot be ignored.

First, direct-seeded rice shortens the growth period of rice. Because direct-seeded rice does not need the process of transplanting, naturally during the rice growth process it does not need the process of rice seedlings turning green after transplanting, so the planting time is generally a bit later than the transplanting time. The later sowing period causes the rice growth period to be shortened, which affects the grain filling of rice. Naturally, it will also have a certain impact on rice yield.

Second is the issue of the seedling emergence rate of direct-seeded rice. Because direct-seeded rice involves directly broadcasting seeds, this easily leads to rice seeds being eaten by birds and mice, which naturally causes uneven seedling emergence.

Third is that direct-seeded rice has too many weeds. The most troublesome problem for direct-seeded rice is the weed problem in the rice field. Transplanted rice can solve this problem very well. If the weed problem is not handled well during the rice seedling stage, it will become even more troublesome later.

Finally, the root system of direct-seeded rice is generally relatively shallow, so the probability of lodging later is greater.

Next, let us briefly look at the advantages and disadvantages of rice transplanting.

Although rice transplanting takes more time and labor and easily causes damage to the rice root system, transplanted rice can solve the weed problem in the rice field very well, is more convenient for later field management, and the rice root system is more robust, which helps increase the effective tillering of rice, and its lodging resistance is somewhat better than that of direct-seeded rice.

Seen this way, there are more uncertain factors in the cultivation process of direct-seeded rice. Therefore, the uncertain factors in yield also increase. So if you can do a good job in the later field management of direct-seeded rice, it can also be adopted. If you are not very confident, then use the old method and transplant the rice.

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