Does anyone here grow rice? If so, tips?

[Tropical Gardening Noob]

I'm currently trying to grow some upland/dryland rice plants that I have germinated from seed. As of now, they've done pretty well and are more than a few inches tall. Since I'm an obvious noob, perhaps some rice growers could lend me some tips on how to grow this stuff. I'm really looking forward to having a good harvest one day!

Notes:
-Growing 10 individual plants in pretty pathetic soil (basically enriched clay/sand)
-Though it didn't say so on the seed packet, I'm pretty sure that the rice is a "blue bonnet" variety
-Tropical climate for me so winter is basically nonexistent

This image kind of sucks, but these are my plants. Since this is an older picture, my rice is a bit larger now.

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[DrCase]

Rice loves nitrogen all season, you could break it up into 4 feedings

 

[Beverly]

Greetings TGN and welcome! I have no idea of how to grow rice and don't know anyone who does, but since you did not introduce yourself on the Intro forum, i'll take this opportunity to welcome you, as one tropical gardener to another. What else do you grow in addition to rice?

 

[Tropical Gardening Noob]

Thanks for the rapid responses! Looks like I didn't see the intro forum...oops

Anyways, I currently have a small plot with a cubanelle pepper plant, a passion fruit vine (young, nowhere near setting fruit), a massive eggplant that just doesn't want to set fruit (perhaps I'll try hand-pollination one day), a Mexican lemon tree, and a pigeon pea tree.
I have some lettuce germinating as well. In the future, I'll try planting a field of amaranth and corn.

About the nitrogen advice, thanks. I could probably use the leaves of my pigeon pea tree as a mulch, since they are legumes

 

[Esther Knapicius]

Interesting? How many rice kernels come out of one plant? A cup, two cups etc. just wondering.

 

[Chuck]

While touring Viet Nam back in the day, it seems as though rice must be grown in knee deep standing water full of mosquitios and water buffalo dung for at least half of its growing life. They grow a lot of rice near Houston Tx and the same there too. It seems as though it must be flooded for considerable lengths of time

 

[Tropical Gardening Noob]

Actually, my rice hasn't actually produced rice yet. They're still pretty young at the moment.

And Chuck, I used to think that rice would be really difficult to grow because of those reasons. Well, the rice seed I've acquired was called "Upland or dryland" rice. The seed packet claimed that it was a species of rice that didn't need to be in standing water to grow! I, honestly, completely doubted this. Fast forward to today, and my rice is doing great with the surface layer of the soil regularly dry. So yeah, upland rice seems pretty handy!

 

[Esther Knapicius]

Interesting? How many rice kernels come out of one plant? A cup, two cups etc. just wondering.

just in general?

 

[Tropical Gardening Noob]

I'm really not sure at all. However, I have heard that rice has a lot less grain yield than wheat. I wish I could grow wheat, but it doesn't really grow well in the tropics

 

[Esther Knapicius]

my thinking is the yield worth the effort compared to the cost of a bag of rice versus your time etc?

 

[Tropical Gardening Noob]

For me, I'm just doing this purely for fun! I basically eat rice everyday, so wouldn't it be cool if I was eating a bowl that I grew?
This is also partly an experiment. If I can successfully grow this, then that opens a door for a larger-scale rice garden.

 

[Beverly]

Also, i think your home grown rice will be far superior in quality and nutrition to bags of rice found in most stores, like most foods home grown.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

For the sake of experimenting, that is wonderful . We don't eat rice, to often, maybe once a week. And I actually order mine on line. Love more of the short grain higher absorbent type, like used for Paella. then there is Arborio rice for my risottos. And cannot forget the Black rice. Like a rice to retain some tooth also. Really not a long grain fan. I find it interesting finding rices from various parts of the world. Did not know until last year that you can get "for cheap" broken rice. Its rice that in the processing has broken, will do the job for much less. Have not gotten that, but its good information for people on a tight food budget.

 

[Tropical Gardening Noob]

The seed packet from which I acquired my rice from (company name: "Desde Mi Huerto") states that it "produces long-grain rice"
The seeds look long-grain too

 

[Vinaya]

I grow rice. Every year I produce 50 quintals of rice. I keep half for myself and sell half and later use the money to buy seeds and fertilizer. Rice is very difficult to grow. You need to plant seeds and after the saplings are just about one feet, in a month, you need to transplant the plants. Usually, harvest time is 90 days.