Key Points of Rice Seedling Cultivation Technology: How to Grow High-Yield Seedlings

Rice is the main food crop in the lakeside lowlands of southern Shandong and southwestern Shandong, with high yield and strong marketability. However, in recent years, mixed varieties and severe diseases have affected the income of farmers in rice-growing areas. Therefore, all rice seedling cultivation techniques must be properly implemented to lay a solid foundation for a bumper rice harvest.

1. Select high-quality varieties. Although Yujing No. 6 rice has relatively poor disease resistance, it has excellent quality, strong photosynthetic efficiency and compensatory capacity, and good yield potential, so it should still be the main variety this year. Lindao 11 and Zhendao 88 can be planted in combination, and Shengdao 806 can be planted for demonstration. Depending on special needs or orders, specialty rice types such as Shengdao 301, Xiangjing 9407, and glutinous rice can also be planted to meet market demand and increase farmers' income.

2. Deep-plow the seedling field and sun-dry the soil clods to activate the soil. Deep-plow and sun-dry the reserved seedling field to improve the soil's physical properties, enhance the soil's water-holding, fertilizer-storing, and fertilizer-supplying capacity, and improve the seedlings' disease resistance and stress resistance. This has a very obvious effect on cultivating strong seedlings.

3. Do a good job of seed treatment. 1. Sun-drying seeds: About 10 days before sowing, choose sunny days to sun-dry the seeds for 2-3 days to improve the seed germination rate and germination vigor. 2. Chemical seed soaking: Use 2 ml of 10% seed-soaking emulsifiable concentrate plus 5-10 ml of 5% fipronil, add 6-8 kg of water, soak 5 kg of seeds for 3-5 days. No washing is needed before sowing. This can effectively prevent rice bakanae disease, white-tip nematode disease, and the occurrence of small brown planthoppers in the early seedling stage.

4. Raise seedlings at the appropriate time and cultivate strong seedlings. In the rice areas of southern Shandong and southwestern Shandong, the suitable time for raising seedlings is around May 1, and the suitable seedling age is about 45 days. Each place can reasonably arrange the seedling-raising time according to the local transplanting schedule, avoiding both short-age small seedlings and long-age old weak seedlings.

Because dry-raised rice seedlings are small, yellow-green in leaf color, and robust, they can reduce the taxis of small brown planthoppers and have strong resistance to infection. This plays a major role in reducing the occurrence of rice stripe leaf blight. At the same time, dry-raised seedlings also have many advantages such as "saving land and seed, quick recovery after transplanting, and easy survival." Villages with the conditions should actively promote dry-raised rice seedlings.

5. Apply heavy base fertilizer and carefully prepare the seedbed. Implement formula fertilization. Before soaking the field, apply 10 kg of urea (or 30 kg of ammonium bicarbonate), 10-15 kg of diammonium phosphate, 10 kg of potassium sulfate, and 1-2 kg of zinc sulfate per mu. After application, evenly turn them into the 10 cm soil layer, then irrigate to soak the field. The seedbed surface should be level, with no visible or hidden clods, preferably 1.5 m wide and about 30 m long. Keep the ditch depth at about 20 cm. After the water naturally drains away, prepare the bed and sow.

6. Sow precisely and cover in time. The suitable sowing rate per mu of clean seedling bed is 25-30 kg. Weigh the rice seeds according to the bed and sow evenly. Do not arbitrarily increase the sowing rate. Sow at the appropriate time when the seedling bed is neither soft nor hard (half the seed enters the mud). After sowing, promptly settle the seeds into the soil and cover with sieved soil-organic fertilizer or fine soil. It is strictly forbidden to use undecomposed plant ash or organic fertilizer as cover. For dry-raised seedlings, the soil cover thickness should reach 1-1.5 cm to prevent moisture loss from affecting germination and emergence.

7. Promote the use of insect-proof nets for seedling cultivation. Because insect-proof nets can effectively prevent direct contact between virus-carrying small brown planthoppers and rice seedlings, they cut off the transmission route of rice stripe leaf blight, thereby preventing or reducing the occurrence and damage of rice stripe leaf blight.

8. Do a good job of seedling-stage management in the seedling field. 1. Water and fertilizer management: Keep the bed surface moist in the early stage, alternate wet and dry in the middle and late stages, and irrigate frequently with small amounts of water. From the one-leaf-one-heart stage to the three-leaf stage, apply 10 kg of urea per mu as tillering fertilizer. Apart from this, do not apply nitrogen fertilizer again, especially do not apply "send-off fertilizer" again. 3. Weed control in the seedling field: 2-5 days after sowing, spray 150-200 g of 35.75% Longsha wettable powder mixed with 30-40 kg of water. After spraying, keep the seedling bed moist for 5-7 days, or at the 3-4 leaf stage of the seedlings, spray 60-80 g per mu of 36% Lingxiu or 32% Zhiduoxin wettable powder mixed with 30-40 kg of water. After emergence, for fields where broadleaf weeds and leptochloa chinensis grow together, a mixed spray of Nongdeshi plus Qianjin can be used. 4. Control insects and prevent diseases in time.