Growing Paddy Part 2 - The science and art of chapeneji (ಚಾಪೆನೇಜಿ)
The biggest of the trees
start their life with minute seeds. Grasses and hence rice, can’t be an
exception.
Keep the seedlings (ನೇಜಿ) ready before planting on
the field
Planting or seeding paddy
needs to be done after the final round of tilling, once the rainy season
arrives and the field is completely wet. Traditionally there have been 2 ways
to plant:
- Method 1 -
Pre-germinate the seeds by soaking and throw them on prepared field (a
rough approach, rather, but however used widely across the world)
- Method 2 - Keep
the seedlings ready densely in a dummy plot and then hand-transplant them
on the field, evenly
Method 2 has now been
upgraded(?) to mechanized transplantation due to increased soil-un-touchability
of land owners and workers and resulting lack of workforce. Any new grower has
to invariably think of Method 2, he likes it or not. However, the new mechanical
approach has brought some benefit since it plants evenly, with lesser harm to
the plants and in a way that is beneficial to the plant.
Preparing seedling bed –
chapeneji (ಚಾಪೆನೇಜಿ)
This is a fine tuned method
needing much attention, care and precision for machine planting.
Here is what I followed in
simple steps:
- First get the
seeds from your last year’s stock or a neighbor or relative. My
Father-in-law (my actual FIL’s younger brother) Shri A.P.Sadashiva, a
paddy grower for generations, gave me seeds of ‘gandhasaale’ (ಗಂಧಸಾಲೆ) variety.
The next steps don’t look
easy for a new grower. My neighbor-relative at Kaje and an adventurous farmer
Mr. Rama Kishore, a new paddy farmer who re-continued the broken paddy
tradition, taught me the next steps.
- The transplanter
machine needs a uniform bed with no stones/pebbles in the soil. Simple
solution is to sieve the soil using the old and time-tested way. Luckily
we could manage some dry soil, even after the initial rains; otherwise I
would have been in a problem!
- The soil bed has
to be 1 inch uniform thickness, ‘topped’ with a thin layer of sieved sand.
To maintain the thickness, Krishna prepared reapers using fallen areca nut
tree. These could well be dried and preserved for next crop.
- Ananda, Raju and
Padma filled up the rectangular frames with stone-free soil. The big
laterite blocks, 16 in number, were kept to hold the frame in place and
shape. The soil bed was made even in level using smaller pieces of areca
tree.
- We sprinkled the
sand over the soil layer as a very thin layer. I am not too sure about why
this step is needed. May be this can be omitted next time.
The total length of seedbed
was 30 feet (for 1/4th acre of field) and a constant 1 meter
width.
Preparing the seed, a
parallel task
- This is rather a
traditional method. Soak the seed in water for 24 hours. For 25 cents of
field (1/4th of an acre), 5 kg seed is sufficient for
machine planting (more efficient than hand planting).
- Take out from
water, drain for next 12-24 hours (tied in a cloth sac, in shade, without
spreading)
- Mix with a lump of fresh cow-dung. This gives higher vigor to seeds and possibly increases seed viability and resistance to diseases. Put it in a basket covered both ways with ‘ittovu’ leaves (Clerodendrum infortunatum). Keep some weight on the basket (gently) for next 12-24 hours. The leaves and cowdung help raise the temperature inside and aid germination. When we open, swollen germ would start peeping out from most of the seeds.
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My hands after cow dung treatment to seeds |
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ittovu seeds to heat up the sprouting paddy grains |
- Throw them
uniformly and densely over the soil bed, prepared in parallel (explained
above).
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Laying seeds as a dense layer |
- Cover with hay (dry rice straws) to protect from direct rain. Astonishing to see previous crop of rice, helping the next crop to sprout, completing a cycle.
Breathe easy. Next steps are to wait and watch the seedlings grow happily! See the lush green wonder come out of the dead looking seeds. Those little seedlings are clever enough to ‘peg’ themselves on soil first, using the first root and then give out the first leaf – for better stability. So much so, a few stray grains of rice that were still stuck to the covered rice straws also sprouted and held to the ground causing irritation while removing the cover after 4-5 days.
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Stray sprouts that came out from left over grains that remained the covered hay |
Day by day they grow and turn greener. My uncle, Sri Rama Kishore inspected in the first week and suggested to spray liquefied cow dung as manure, which I did. Result is showing up clearly.
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Young seedlings ejecting the extra water through leaf tips (as I understand) |
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Cricket pitch like paddy nursery in front of the house - much too rewarding than the useless game! |
***
What I am left with now is an uneven field that is not according to water level, with a lot of stones still left, busy tractor operators who are not picking up calls, the paddy nursery that is crossing it's suitable age for transplantation - all of which I expected very well in advance. Hopes are on.
Vasantha Kaje.
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