Importance of timing

There are two cases where I hit the real importance of timing in farming. One was weeding in the last june (2012) where I had put upland rice after tilling the land. After putting the seeds, and after the germination, the land was very clean and weeds started coming afterwards. Initially they were very small and I thought, I will deweed after some time or some time the rice may grow above that. But rice plants were not growing above them, rather weeds got very dense and rice plants were hardly seen. If I had deweeded at the initial stage, it would have been very easy since pulling out small weeds are much easier, but once they become established it becomes almost difficult.

Second time I realised about the timing was starting the cultivation, after growing sunhemp as covercrop. In one area, I had grown sunhemp for an year, and towards the end of summer the field was very clean, since sunhemp and grass all had dried well. I should have started the rice cultivation there with the first rain, but it got delayed and weeds started growing there. Once the weeds establish, it is impossible to start cultivation there. So a delay of 1 or 2 weeks spoils everything and one season is lost.