Rice Blast - Any Cure?

[AA1]

When my wife went up to put fertiliser on some of her rice yesterday she found what she calls 'bacteria' on quite a lot of leaves. She says no cure!

I 'googled' rice diseases and the nearest I could find to it was Rice Blast - see attachment and hope it comes out okay. The only poss. cure I could find, if it is Rice Blast, was boiling a Kg. of Malibar Nut leaves in water and then spraying the liquid on the rice. I then looked up Malibar Nut tree and found that it is used in herbal medicines and grew in the lower Himalayas!!!! Not really very helpful for picking leaves!!!!!

Has anyone else experienced this and do you have any recommendation of a spray which might help?

[IsaanAussie]

Dont know if it will help or not, but if it is bacterial then spraying it with aerated vermicast tea may help. The bacteria in the tea could out-compete that on the rice. Works on plants and leaves, don't know about rice.

You could using spray some soapy water on a sample for a quick test.

[krauti]

Hi there,

most likely it is a deficiency. Could be a Boron deficiency. I detected the same pattern in Isaan. Where is your paddy situated? Please know, that in the North and Northeast of Thailand the soils are deficient of Boron anc Cink. As I am selling a organic product called SUPERGREEN (it is high-tech-milled Dolomite (a kind of Limestone) which content naturally Boron and Cink. I would like you to test it, so I could send you some samples.

Please tell me your address if you want to test. The product is absolutely harmless for humans, animals, fish, water etc. In Europe and the US it is approved for organic farming.

Best regards

Werner Kraeutler

MEGAGROW Co. Ltd.,

Nonthaburi

[pnustedt]

There's a spray product commonly available called "O Two" which we use on rice and other plants and does seem to be good at curing fungal and bacterial related diseases.

Close to our farm (in Prankhu) there is a shop we use for specialised sprays - we take a sample of what we want to cure to them and they recommend the chemicals.

[slapout]

pnustedt, probably has the right approach. It looks like, what we called leaf rust. Some grain varieties are immune to this and others are not. It can be controlled with proper spray. It can, if left untreated, have a survive affect on your harvest of grain.

[AA1]

Thanks so much for your swift replies as will help to cheer the wife up!!

IA. Thanks. Will give us something extra to talk about over a Leo when we meet at yours on the 17th. September for the 1st gathering of the Isaan Farmers Club!!

Krauti. You are dead right. We do live in Isaan ( lower Surin) so would be very happy to try out your suggestion and if successful then obviously very happy to recommend it. Will PM you.

Pnustedt. Most interested to read that you live in Prankhu as not only does my wife's mother's family live about 9 km. away (Ban White Rabbit - whatever that is in Thai) BUT more importantly why don't you come and join us on the 17th. Sept at Issan Aussie's who live quite close to you on road 220 in Sisaket (see Thread 'Isaan, Farmers Idea Exchange'). My wife has heard of "O Two" and would be most interested to hear where the specialist spray shop is.

Slapout. Thanks for adding confirmation to Pnustedt's views.

[Pond Life]

We had something that looked like that on our first rice crop a couple of years ago.

Also had leaf rollers at the same time.

We sprayed with Neem (Sadao) which seemed to help with the bugs.

No idea if it had any effect on the blast.

We still had a very good harvest.

In my experience Thai's totally over react to all problems with their crops.

Rice is a grass, its very difficult to stop it growing.

The worst thats likely to happen is a reduced (but still good) harvest.

[pnustedt]

why don't you come and join us on the 17th. Sept at Issan Aussie's who live quite close to you on road 220 in Sisaket (see Thread 'Isaan, Farmers Idea Exchange')

I know IA well and plan to get to his meetup on the 17th. Hope to meet you there