How hard is it to grow rice?

[Rosyrain]

Rice is not a big staple food where I live, but I love to eat it. Around the Northwest United States, we eat a lot of potatoes, which I guess this is our rice. I do like to eat rice though and I am curious to see how hard it is to grow. Does anyone have experience growing rice?

 

[Chuck]

I have never grown it or even tried but I have seen it grown. The first thing you need is a drainable swamp or rice paddie

 

[iLoveTheLawn]

Chuck is right. You would need to have muddy waters to be able to plant it. When I was in Indonesia, I get a chance to learn how they plant rice. The seeds are planted in a special bed of wet soil till it sprouted, and then transfer it to slightly shallow muddy area till it grows to a certain length (I can't remember the height), and eventually to an area of slightly deeper muddy area. Traditionally if I'm not wrong, they could harvest once a year, unless of they go for the GM rice, it might take a shorter period of growth.

 

[headfullofbees]

Well the Chinese do it and there's billions of 'em.

 

[Rosyrain]

Oh I see. Well rice is cheap around where I live so I think I will just stick to buying it at the store. There is no need for me to endure back breaking labor and wet conditions for a little free rice.

 

[Cheesy Potatoes]

Good idea. It takes so much hard work and effort to grow rice, so it'll be so much better if you buy them instead of going through so much trouble. I have seen rice farmers work on their field and it takes them so much work to grow rice. They need to plow the fields, make sure there is enough water for the rice paddy, and finally plant the rice seedlings which they have already prepared in advance in their homes. That's not all, harvesting rice will also take so much work and effort just for a few sacks of rice.

 

[Pat]

I love rice so I am glad to hear there are people working hard to grow this staple for us. I have never thought about how the rice is grown, I know it is not something that everyone can grow like a tomatoe plant when it gets warm. I will appreciate my rice more now that I know how hard it is to grow.

 

[firelily99]

Basically you would have to flood your yard in order to have the environment to grow the rice. It would be spectacularly labor intensive; considering the low cost of rice this might be a project left to people who have been growing it for awhile. Nice idea though.

 

[Whitewolf2578]

My friend says that it is extremely hard to grow if you don't have the right setup or the right climate. Should just leave it up to the professionals to grow it, probably just end up growing toxic rice if you tried.