This is the update about my rice cultivation and planning to update it as and when some events occur in this activity.
October 28,2011
Yesterday night there was rain and land was reasonably wet. This is called 'Thulamazha' or North east monsoon. Typically it will be there in October and November. Cut the paddy field 2 using Honda brush cutter with blade attachment. One session in the morning and another session in afternoon each around 2.5 hours. My mother had accompanied me to farm this time, so gave the broadcasting paddy seeds and horse gram work to her and she was happy to do that. As and when I cut the field she broadcasted the seeds and when I complete that area, she will again broadcast the seeds. Used around 2Kgs of 'Poonkar seed' with 700gms of horse gram, but it was not sufficient for the complete area. The rest of the area will be transplanted.
Paddy field 3 has some grasses already grown, but since Honda cutter is there, one more round of cutting can be done very quickly. This is the advantage of the cutter, manual cutting is just impossible. The places where mulching was done with sunhemp only a few creepers were seen and grass was under control as of now.
This time I am planning to get rice seedlings from the organic farm of Thanal in Erimayoor, Palakkad. The person in charge, Illias has promised to give enough rice seedling, to be seen.
November 05,2011
Yesterday collected 20 bundles of rice seedlings from Illias of Thanal. They have a farm in Padayatti, Erimayoor. They were transplanting seedlings and they don't get canal irrigation water and depends on rain for the 2nd crop also. They have at well and they will pump water from it, if there is a need at the end. Illias told about an interesting thing about fertilizing the rice fields. There are people who has got big number of goats and if asked they will keep the goats in your field for a night providing a temperory fencing. By morning the field will have pellets and their urine and it is a good fertilizer. These people charge the owner of the field at 50 paise per goat. Illias is an active person, I asked him how does he spends his evening in the village and he says he is too busy with reports, organising meetings, travelling etc..
When I visited, previously sown rice and horse gram had germinated in some
areas well and in some areas it was not seen at all. But in some places it
is grass which is dominating !!!
Today plan was to transplant the rice seedlings, in remaining area. I had my helper and his wife working along with me. We were using spade to put the seedlings and found that this was disturbing the soil and effort was too much. My helper friend went and made a dibbling stick and using that he made holes and started transplaning the seedlings and work was completed quite faster. This is a really good tool for transplanting without disturbing the soil. The depth of the hole has to be controlled by controlling the size of the sharp end. Also it is better that the stick is little thicker so that we get a wider hole.
In one portion where I had cut the grass/sunhemp 2 weeks back, grass had
grown back, after getting some good rains.So I cut this grass once again
with brush cutter, otherwise there is no chance that rice will survive the
grass. Here the timing is very critical..if I had sown a week or
immediately along with cutting, then this problem wouldn't have beenn
there. But if I miss the window, then to recover in NF, it is a problem.
In one portion of the field I have broadcasted rice + horse grams and here
there is standing water, so not sure what will happen and it is raining
heavily. May have to make provisions for draining water from field by
tomorrow. Last time when I tried broadcasting seeds after ploughing,
peacocks ate most of the seeds, but this time since seeds are put in the
mulch, it may not be completely visible to them. Earlier I was thinking
sunhemp mulch will be too thick to handle, but after 2 weeks of drying, it
was nothing in the field..
Another 2 fields are still left out, will be doing some thing soon on
them.
October 28,2011
Yesterday night there was rain and land was reasonably wet. This is called 'Thulamazha' or North east monsoon. Typically it will be there in October and November. Cut the paddy field 2 using Honda brush cutter with blade attachment. One session in the morning and another session in afternoon each around 2.5 hours. My mother had accompanied me to farm this time, so gave the broadcasting paddy seeds and horse gram work to her and she was happy to do that. As and when I cut the field she broadcasted the seeds and when I complete that area, she will again broadcast the seeds. Used around 2Kgs of 'Poonkar seed' with 700gms of horse gram, but it was not sufficient for the complete area. The rest of the area will be transplanted.
Paddy field 3 has some grasses already grown, but since Honda cutter is there, one more round of cutting can be done very quickly. This is the advantage of the cutter, manual cutting is just impossible. The places where mulching was done with sunhemp only a few creepers were seen and grass was under control as of now.
This time I am planning to get rice seedlings from the organic farm of Thanal in Erimayoor, Palakkad. The person in charge, Illias has promised to give enough rice seedling, to be seen.
November 05,2011
Yesterday collected 20 bundles of rice seedlings from Illias of Thanal. They have a farm in Padayatti, Erimayoor. They were transplanting seedlings and they don't get canal irrigation water and depends on rain for the 2nd crop also. They have at well and they will pump water from it, if there is a need at the end. Illias told about an interesting thing about fertilizing the rice fields. There are people who has got big number of goats and if asked they will keep the goats in your field for a night providing a temperory fencing. By morning the field will have pellets and their urine and it is a good fertilizer. These people charge the owner of the field at 50 paise per goat. Illias is an active person, I asked him how does he spends his evening in the village and he says he is too busy with reports, organising meetings, travelling etc..
When I visited, previously sown rice and horse gram had germinated in some
areas well and in some areas it was not seen at all. But in some places it
is grass which is dominating !!!
Today plan was to transplant the rice seedlings, in remaining area. I had my helper and his wife working along with me. We were using spade to put the seedlings and found that this was disturbing the soil and effort was too much. My helper friend went and made a dibbling stick and using that he made holes and started transplaning the seedlings and work was completed quite faster. This is a really good tool for transplanting without disturbing the soil. The depth of the hole has to be controlled by controlling the size of the sharp end. Also it is better that the stick is little thicker so that we get a wider hole.
In one portion where I had cut the grass/sunhemp 2 weeks back, grass had
grown back, after getting some good rains.So I cut this grass once again
with brush cutter, otherwise there is no chance that rice will survive the
grass. Here the timing is very critical..if I had sown a week or
immediately along with cutting, then this problem wouldn't have beenn
there. But if I miss the window, then to recover in NF, it is a problem.
In one portion of the field I have broadcasted rice + horse grams and here
there is standing water, so not sure what will happen and it is raining
heavily. May have to make provisions for draining water from field by
tomorrow. Last time when I tried broadcasting seeds after ploughing,
peacocks ate most of the seeds, but this time since seeds are put in the
mulch, it may not be completely visible to them. Earlier I was thinking
sunhemp mulch will be too thick to handle, but after 2 weeks of drying, it
was nothing in the field..
Another 2 fields are still left out, will be doing some thing soon on
them.
2 comments:
dear nandan,
i was trying to email (on p.k.nandanan@yahoo.com) you via email but it was bouncing back. is the email correct?
rgds - vinod
Hi Vinod,
Oh..email ID was incorrect, it is p_k_nandanan@yahoo.com
Regards,
Nandan
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