Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Happy hill rice - 2016 monsoon

Happy hill rice was cultivated by Masanobu Fukuoka and supposed to be one of the best yielding variety. On this monsoon, I am cultivating happy hill rice just to make sure that I have the seeds..and probably try to improve this variety for the local climate. The seeds which I am using now, is cultivated from the original seeds sent by a Japanese friend.

A raised bed was made and cowdung is spread and some seeds were put directly here. Some seeds were kept in a covered wet cloth and after 3 days, they started germinating and those seeds were put in another portion of the raised bed.

I hope to send the seeds to more people who is interested to try out this variety. Last time I had sent the seeds to 4-5 friends located at different parts of the world and had requested them to send back some seeds after their harvest, yet to hear from them.


25-May-2016

Rice seedlings can be seen....


2-June-2016


10-June-2016


Just made some aeration for the soil using a stick and poured some cowdung slurry. Arachis pintoi planted along with it, just to see how it grows along with paddy.

24-June-2016


7-July-2016


15-July-2016



Rice plants looks beautiful now !!! Application of cowdung slurry does all the magic...I apply it once in 2 days, since cow shed is nearby...flowering started...

24-July-2016


1-August-2016

More flowers and grain formation stared....taken using iPhone



11-Aug-2016


Grains are turning yellow, getting ready for harvest

27-August-2016

Harvested a portion of the paddy....some grains are still green...some good plants with many tillers haven't flowered, may be lack of light...cowpea which was grown neaby has taken some light...



My daughter counted the grains...counted one bunch and then multiplied..70 bunches and each one containing 160..totally 11200 grains...this is not complete harvest..Total number of seeds used was around 50.

18 comments:

Unknown said...

can I have some seeds please.

Nandakumar said...

Sure, can send you 10 seeds in a weeks time. Please send your address to p_k_nandanan@yahoo.com. You have to update me on the progress and also return 20 seeds when you harvest the rice.


Regards,
Nandan

Unknown said...

looks like sticky rice the east asians use... have you tried these?

Unknown said...

nandakumar sir,

I have received the seed and sown the same. But I could not get a single plant. bad luck. However thanq u once again.

Onkareswarrao

Nandakumar said...

Dear Subith,

No, I haven't eaten Happy hill rice...next time, may be will put in some more bigger area and try it out.

Dear Challa onkareswararao - don't worry, I have more seeds, can send you some more by next season. I just put 10 seeds in wet cloth, just to see if they germinate, and they have germinated, so seeds viability is not lost. Earlier, I had faced this problem, after keeping them for an year, they stopped germinating.


Regards,
Nandan

Unknown said...

Than Q sir for reply. awaiting for seeds. Thanks.

Pozarnica said...

May I please have some seeds? I live in Australia and could not find any of these seeds.
Thanks!
Vid

Nandakumar said...

Hi Vid,

I can send some seeds by April 1st week, please ping me by that time. Here is my email address- p_k_nandanan@yahoo.com


Regards,
Nandan

Unknown said...

Hi Nandan,
I have sent you an email on the above email address.
Cheers!

Vid

Nandakumar said...

Yes Vid, got that mail and responded back.

Regards,
Nandan

Unknown said...

Hi. Do you still have any seeds available?

Nandakumar said...

Hi,

I still have some seeds, but they don't germinate anymore. I am looking for some more samples or trying to find a way to germinate old seeds.


Regards,
Nandan

Unknown said...

Hi,
I’d love to try growing Happy Hill rice here in Florida. Have you had any luck getting the old seed to germinate?

Nandakumar said...

Hi,

No, old happy hill rice seeds are not germinating now. I am also trying to get these seeds once again.


Regards,
Nandan

WildChildGardens said...

Nandan,
You sent me seeds in 2016. Thank you. My first few attempts were unsuccessful, but I planted the last 5 seeds at my new farm, and they are getting close to harvest time. Of course I will send some back to you!
I just posted pictures of the rice plants on www.facebook.com/wildchildgardens

Hope you & yours are well. Let me know if you'd like some other seeds as well.
Thanks again,
Maria

Nandakumar said...

Hi Maria,

Just located your emails.
...so happy and excited to hear this, what a wonderful person you are......has been looking for these seeds now with so many peoples and couldn't find it. I had sent these seeds to atleast 20 people around the world, and you are the only person having this.

Would wait for your harvest

Regards,
Nandan

Clem said...

Hi Maria, Mi Nandakumar
I'm clem, nice to hear your experience with Happy hill upland rice.. I tested some Loto italian upland rice in the year 2014-2016, than I exchanged it with some duborskian upload rice with a guy in Indiana, Usa. after that, no more rice germinated. here some test foto of 2016: https://www.agrobuti.it/foto/ortomilpa/riso15-08-12.jpg. https://www.agrobuti.it/foto.php?gruppofoto=ortomilpa
So I have one question and a a request for all you:
1) upland rice, and more in generale any rice seeds, get germination power lost after 1 year?
2) how can I get a few seed of Happy Hill upland rice to test it on my dry central Italy very small plot of land? at leat I'm interested on getting also any other upland rice seeds from Laos, where I studied still upland rice are fluoring..
thanks for any reply at agrobuti@gmail.com

Nandakumar said...

Hi Maria,

Nice to hear about your experiments with upland rice. Yes, in my experience also, rice seeds loose viability after few months, duration depends on the variety. In my case, happy hill rice seeds also loose viability after 1 or 2 months in my climate, so my 2016 seeds were lost but I was lucky to get some more seeds from Japan. Now a days, I keep the rice seeds in refrigerator so it does not loose its germination power.

Now a days sending seeds to other countries are restricted, so sending by post won't be possible. If some persons are travelling to this part of world, I can give with them the seeds and they have to carry it at their own risk


Regards,
Nandan