Germination temperature
About 10-42 °C (50-107 °F); best near 31 °C (87 °F).
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Rice is normally soaked, sprouted and raised in a wet nursery bed, then transplanted into a puddled field. Warmth, shallow sowing and young seedlings give the best start.
About 10-42 °C (50-107 °F); best near 31 °C (87 °F).
Sprouted seed on the bed surface, or under 5 mm of soil.
Soaked seed sprouts in about 24 hours of incubation.
Not needed to sprout; full sun for the crop.
Soak 10-24 hours, then keep moist and warm for 24 hours.
Usually transplanted at the 4th-leaf stage.
Use clean, well-filled seed. TNAU recommends a seed treatment against seed-borne disease, either a fungicide or the biological agent Bacillus subtilis (10 g per kg of seed), before soaking.
Not needed. Rice seed takes up water through the hull without any nicking.
Not needed. Rice is a warm-season cereal.
Yes. Soak the seed for 10 hours (overnight, or up to 24 hours for SRI nurseries), drain it, then keep it in a damp sack or cloth in the dark for 24 hours. Sow when the root tip is 2-3 mm long.
Rice germinates from about 10 °C (50 °F) up to 42 °C (107 °F), fastest near 31 °C (87 °F). Between 21 and 36 °C (70-97 °F) germination takes about two days.
Spread sprouted seed evenly on the wet bed surface, or cover it with only 5 mm of dry soil in a mat nursery. Some semi-dwarf varieties will not emerge if buried deeper than 1.3-2 cm (1/2-3/4 in).
Puddled soil in a nursery bed about 2.5 m (8 ft) wide, with 30 cm (12 in) channels around it so water drains off the surface.
Sow onto a thin film of water. Do not bury seed under both soil and standing water: lack of oxygen then stops most seedlings from emerging.
Sprouting is done in the dark. The nursery and field need full sun.
Pre-soaked seed sprouts within about 24 hours. Dry seed sown in a field can take 5-28 days to emerge, depending on temperature and moisture.
Level the bed so water drains to the channels. In a mat nursery, water with a rose can two or three times a day, protect from heavy rain for the first 5 days, keep a thin film of water from day 6 and drain 2 days before lifting the mats.
Pull seedlings at the 4th-leaf stage: 18-22 days old for short-duration, 25-30 days for medium and 35-40 days for long-duration varieties. Seedlings left until the 5th leaf or later establish poorly. In the SRI method a single young seedling is planted per hill.
Transplant into a field puddled with about 2.5 cm (1 in) of water and keep the soil saturated or shallowly flooded while the plants tiller.
Cause: seed buried too deep for short semi-dwarf varieties. Fix: cover with no more than 1.3-2 cm (1/2-3/4 in) of soil, or use sprouted seed in a nursery.
Cause: seed covered by soil and standing water at the same time, so it lacks oxygen. Fix: sow sprouted seed on the surface of a drained, wet bed with only a thin film of water.
Cause: heavy rain in the first days after sowing. Fix: cover the bed or protect it from heavy rain for the first 5 days.
Cause: seedlings too old, past the 5th-leaf stage. Fix: sow the nursery so transplanting falls at the right age for the variety's duration group.
TNAU uses about 800 m2 (20 cents) of wet nursery and 30-60 kg of seed per hectare of field (20 kg for hybrids); an SRI mat nursery needs only 100 m2 and 5-7 kg of seed.
For a small plot, a mat nursery works well: a frame 4 cm deep on plastic sheet, filled with soil, sown with about 90-100 g of sprouted seed per m2 and covered with 5 mm of soil.
Drain the field 7-10 days before the expected harvest date to hasten even ripening.
Harvest when about 80% of the panicles are straw-coloured and grains at the panicle base are clear and firm. Thresh, winnow and dry the grain to 12% moisture for storage.
Soak, sprout and raise rice in a wet nursery bed for strong seedlings ready to transplant.
TNAU soaks treated seed for about 10 hours (overnight to 24 hours for SRI), then keeps it damp and dark for 24 hours until a short root tip shows.
Transplant at the 4th-leaf stage: 18-22 days for short-duration, 25-30 days for medium and 35-40 days for long-duration varieties.
When about 80% of the panicles have turned straw-coloured and dehusked grains from the lower panicle are clear and firm. Drain the field 7-10 days before.