Cono Weeder

[tingtong]

hello

I would like to give a try to SRI (system of rice intensification), growing some rice in Chaiyapoom, on our small farm.

This would require some weeder, as i see from the internet articles/pdf files available.

One would be cono weeder, but i have no idea where to buy it, and if anywhere, then at what price in Thailand.

Any help would be appriciated, also if there is anyone who is using this system in Isaan, i would like to get into contact for some questions about the practical matters.

Try to attach a photo what might help.

Regards

tingtong

[slapout]

I have not seen anything like the picture in Thailand. The family use standing water to control weeds in the rice paddy. There is a herbicide that works on weeds in the growing rice field. We have never used that either.

I have seen a similar device sold for (small) flower gardens in the US. It was basically 3 or 4, eight pointed star shaped rollers, set at slight angle on a shaft. The angle and elbow grease by the operator would cut weeds and tear up the soil.They were avaliable at any of the garden stores, but that does help here.

A decent farm workshop could probably build one, if you can convey what you want. The result of a man/woman using one of those gizmos for a day may be somewhat disappointing if you have several rai of rice.

[Pond Life]

I've experimented with this method a couple of times,

& will be transplanting all our paddies with this method in about a weeks time (only 800m2 total).

In the past we planted about 30 cm apart using 2 wk old seedlings.

We felt that 3 wk old would be better & thats what we will do this year.

In our experiments we got just as much rice using this method (Single plants) as with the Thai method (3-5 plants).

We didnt have the special weeder, just used a job in between the plants as required until the plants closed the gaps.

We didnt drain the fields regularly as in the SRI method, but our water supply is intermitant so it went dry regularly.

(my worker had a screaming shit fit & said it was all going to die).

This year I will try to keep as much water in the fields as possible as we will be putting ducklings in with the rice.

The ducks are supposed to do the weeding for you, time will tell.

I've been following the rice with Masanobu Fukuoka "one straw revolution" style Wheat & it works well.

The duck idea comes from a book called "the power of duck".

If you look at photo 2, the top half of the photo, far left, you can see some very small weedy seedlings.

Photo 3 & 4 is of that same paddy, they grew just as good as the bigger seedlings.

Unless you plan on transplanting yourself, you will have a hard time convincing your workers to do it your way.

Good Luck

[tingtong]

Slapout:

thanks for the imput, i know the divice you refer to, but unfortunate i am not that part of US where it is sold...ie, right now in Alaska, where not too much farming going on, thus they dont sell it.

ebay has that weeder on sale, but afraid that postage would be more than the price itself.

another point, i am not sure how that would perform on the ricefield. whereas this cono weeder seem to be created for such task.

Pondlife:

much appriciated post, many thanks for the photos as well.

right now we have the land planted with rice, but just the usual seed broadcast way.

While the ricefield is rainfed rice (Isaan) we have a pond, and bore, so, if not the whole 7 rai what now planted, but on 1-2 rai i would like to try growing rice on the dry season.

Since the area wouldnt be large, the transplanting would be done with me and wife (and son maybe, if no cartoon in the TV to watch that time?).

The point of the project would be to have some first hand experience about SRI, and if the results would be compareble good, maybe to convince the in-laws to try it on their single crop 50 rai riceland, where the difference could be lot more pronounced...and sure as hell that they could use some extra household income.

If you dont mind, would u share how was your yield, and if you got any better yield out of it?

I read about the ducks, and might be incorporated to rice growing at some point, now in thinking phase.

If anyone else has some info, or things to share, pls do

[IsaanAussie]

I dont want to "rain" on your parade, but off season rice here in Isaan needs a lot of water. That will be your limiting factor and 50 Rai is going to need a lot. Assuming you need to replace most of the rain fall average of some 1200 mm per year, that means you need access to 96 million litres of water. How big is that pond?

[Pond Life]

Isaan Aussie,

The SRI method uses a lot less water than traditional methods.

After the rice is established you only have to flood irrigate every 1 to 2 wks.

But because the paddies are not continuously flooded you get lots of weeds, hence the cono weeder.

Have a read, its got a few surprises.

Rice growing SRI.pdf

[tingtong]

IssanAussie,

thanks for the time to read my post, big fan of yours

I have a pond on our farm, not the in-laws...they dont, and they wont plant rice dry season...

But i can use my about 2 rai total pond to conduct a dry season trial on about 2 rai of my 7 rai now currently having rice in the (not-so-wet) wet season...

If the trial goes fine, with result to confirm at least part of the internet resources, then i might be able to convince in-laws to try it on a small section of their 50 rai... but not the dry season, next rainy one...

I think what pondlife mentioned in his post, if you read that, is promising, he also seem to confirm that less seed could result about the same harvest... and where there is only one crop rice and little else to do with the land, all saving counts.

I would like to help in-laws, but i would and did always try to avoid doing it on a being-the ATM way...part because i am simple not the old and rich kind a farang, who can do that.

hope this clarify a bit my post. and with your permission in a few weeks time i will contact you here about pigs, there is many things i have in my mind, on a small trial scale

[Pond Life]

Tingtong,

Here's the details from 2009 rice.

Rice 2009.rtf

I hope it makes sense.

I'd forgotten that the SRI did actually give a better yield than the Thai method.

That year was the fist time that piece of land had rice grown on it.

Also we gave fertiliser 2 times.

Now we try to do organic.

Last year we were busy building a house so only made a half arsed attempt at the rice.

[tingtong]

thanks pondlife,

yes, part the higher yield the aim, but part the viability, that something can be grown with less water, as i am not sure i could do fully irrigated farming on my field, (let alone the in-laws).

i am glad you got the point of the weeder.

my indian friend confirmed that it is available rather cheap there in india (around 25USD), but it isnt really possible to import 2 pcs for trial, also the postage would be way higher than the tool itself. thus i try to find a way to aquire it in thailand.

since there is mention about SRI in thailand on the net, thought someone might came across it, or has info about where to find.

[rice555]

Hello tingtong, if you did your googling, you would of came up with this in CM.

http://sustainabilityquest.blogspot.com/2010/11/cono-weeder-at-fair-earth-farm.html

It might be easy to contact them and see if they may have any info on the Cono.

It's easy to have a shop make things up here, also very low cost.

Also if you want to get a Thai involved with SRI, here's a link to the SRI in Thai, with some

pictures and how to make a Thai style weeder.

http://ns.ist.cmu.ac.th/riseat/documents/sri.pdf

rice555

[tingtong]

hi rice555

thanks for the reply.

i think before this post i had tried to contect fair Earth farm via mail from their website, but never got any answer back to my inquire, thus i thought might be better to take the search wilder to this forum

also seem to remember reading somewhere that they did import it from India their weeder as well...

and one thing is sure, there is no Uni or NGO or anything behind me to shoulder the cost of importing 100 pcs ( some min requirement from India).

but anyway, maybe i write one more, shouldnt hurt.

[tingtong]

some update:

I got a mail via from

Rick Burnette

Director, ECHO Asia Impact Center

thanks rice555 for that blog, he did read the post yesterday there, and seems that he will be able to help me with my quest to find the mentioned weeders in CM.