North east monsoon was delayed and there was no rain in October. Road work was in progress and hence tractor couldn't enter farm for ploughing...finally it was all well delayed..Because of delayed monsoon, farmers are not having water for making seed bed ready and some are pumping water from wells, some has gone for direct seeding, some are not cultivating.
Ploughing was done with tractor with cage wheel attachment on November 6th. Around 6Kgs seeds were put in soaking on November 9th. This is a traditional seed called 'Kunju Kunju' which is supposed to be very tasty.
12-November-2015
Germinated seeds were put on the bed. Bed was created by spreading banana leaves and putting mud over it. Since nursery is done after puddling the field, the field will have to wait till the seedlings are ready, typically 10 days. By this time, grass starts to dominate...this has to be avoided, by raising nursery in a separate area.
18-Nov-2015
Rice has germinated and growing...many seeds haven't germinated, not sure why....
28-November-2015
Nursery looks good now..
Planting device for planting at 30 cm distance..personally planted in some area,,,it is much better than using a rope method.
another device...Thanks to Dr.Kathiresan Guruswamy for this device..I made this device using GI pipes..please see the video for the original device designed by Dr.Kathiresan Guruswamy..
https://www.facebook.com/kathiresan.gurusamy.1/videos/460652090740614/?pnref=story
30-November-2015
Transplanting completed...more or less line is kept using the device...
5-December-2015
Not flooding the field this time, following SRI guidelines...weeds have started coming...have to weed in another 2-3 days...walking is easy since there is enough space...weeding can be done using hand, just stirring the muddy soil..
8-December-2015
Weeds are growing at full speed...started first weeding today..one woman labour and myself started it. I got a cono weeder from a friend and started using it. It looks to be a useful tool, even though some paddy plants were also affected during weeding, but could restore them...
13-December-2015
Allowed water after weeding, now will let it dry...some dry cowdung also was applied...
16-December-2015
23-December-2015
27-December-2015
Doing one more weeding using Cono-weeder since it will help in aeration..
30-December-2015
Cono weeding completed..
7-Jan-2016
13-Jan-2016
20-Jan-2016
26-Jan-2016
Started flowering....
30-Jan-2016
Bird perches put for birds to control pests.....
4-March-2016
There was no pest attack this time...getting ready for harvest
14-March-2016
Harvesting is completed...total effort was 4 women labourers and 3 men labourers. Got around 240Kgs of paddy, enough food for next 5 months. Some photos....
Harvesting team, has a young member named Akshaya, she is not employed, just do it for fun for some time...
Since gap is 25-30 cm and tillers were less (maximum 20, average 12), it is diverging from centre and cutting using Scythe was not easy. Also Scythe was not having harvesting fitting, has to try with that. But grain shedding was not there, when cut using Scythe, that is very encouraging.
Cracks started coming in the field and it is rock solid....may be all issues with tilling....but right now no choice, no tilling does not work to this extend.
Scattered around 0.5 Kgs of sesame and 4 Kgs of horse gram and 2 Kgs of cowpea and mulched straw over this. The process is not complete, will water it and will let it grow, mainly used as green manure.
