Rice Planting Time

[T_Dog]

I've never seen a rice planting thread on ThaiVisa so thought I would upload some snapshots after the farmers showed up today in the fields in front of the house. The seedlings have been growing for over two months and the tractors have been tilling the flooded fields for a month which a short time ago were dry from the soy bean harvest. Pulling the seedlings is back breaking work and now today they will be spread over a six rai plot. Pull, bundle, move, position, and plant.

[T_Dog]

After the seedlings are pulled, they are bundled up with a bamboo strip to hold them together. This is all sticky rice.

[villagefarang]

You mean something like this?

[T_Dog]

The bundles are then moved to the open flooded areas. Nothing there but water and mud below. I try to keep my distance from the farmers as I am stuck at home nursing a bad head cold, but they are eager to teach me about what they are doing.

[T_Dog]

village farang, those are great! Bring 'em on!

[T_Dog]

The seedlings fly like lawn darts as they are thrown into the fields. Stooping over to plant them has got to be tough on the back! Within minutes, the open water starts to green up with twenty people toiling away....

[villagefarang]

A few more.

[T_Dog]

villagefarang....Great photos, and how do you get them to appear so large on the forum pages?

[villagefarang]

villagefarang....Great photos, and how do you get them to appear so large on the forum pages?

These shots are located on my blog and G+ albums so all I have to do is copy the URL and paste it into the little green photo icon located on the toolbar.

[soidog2]

great pictures; around here it has not rained for month, the rice is mostly dead or dying.

[villagefarang]

With all the rain we have had lately, this is what our valley presently looks like from our house.(Phaya Mengrai, Chiang Rai)

Edited August 1, 2012 by villagefarang

[T_Dog]

great pictures; around here it has not rained for month, the rice is mostly dead or dying.

The rains have been quite wimpy here in Mae Taeng as well, but it looks like Chiang Rai is getting it. The irrigation department is actually rationing water to certain days for given zones which is unusual. Farmers here are hoping the rains will start right about.......now!

[ripstanley]

I loved the photos T-Dog and Villagefarang. It is amazing watching them plant rice. It is so hard on the back. I can now see where the saying "head down and bum up" come from.

[stoneyboy]

I've participated in the planting of new rice and boy was it hard work,probably the hardest work I've ever undertaken in my life,I had two days solid helping the family out and it was simply back breaking,leg breaking and ball breaking,I literally ached for two weeks after.

Not only that,unbeknown to me at the time the lovely ice cold water I was gulping down by the bucket full was actually rain water,which in turn gave me the shits for 3 days,I will never forget the experience,there was snakes,bugs and all sorts of everything in those paddies,I remember collecting the crabs,snails and just about every other thing that moved so the mother in law could cook them up at the end of the day.

I've not done it since and never will.

Nice thread with some great pictures.

[Rsquared]

Ditto to T_Dog for a great thread and photos and also to Villagefarang for some more of his amazing photos.

What is a G+ album........cause all I can post is the small thumbnail attachment size photos as well.

Cheers.

[villagefarang]

Ditto to T_Dog for a great thread and photos and also to Villagefarang for some more of his amazing photos.

What is a G+ album........cause all I can post is the small thumbnail attachment size photos as well.

Cheers.

Google Plus. There is a link on my profile page. Google Plus is the other Facebook.

All you really need is an online storage site, which you can link to. After the setup it gets easier.

Edited August 1, 2012 by villagefarang

[David Peters]

I loved all the photos supplied by village farang from the far north. How much nitrogen fertiliser do you apply or is it organic? Do the farmers apply liquid fertilisers at the booting stage in October? In some of the photos the fields look a little pale. Lacking in nitrogen and perhaps potassium?

Here in the northeast with so many villages lacking labour, a vast rice area is now broadcast seed sown. You can spot these fields a long way away as they are usually weedy and lacking in fertiliser. And nowadays a lot of farmers contract harvesting by small combines. What about in the north-hand or combine harvesting?

[villagefarang]

I loved all the photos supplied by village farang from the far north. How much nitrogen fertiliser do you apply or is it organic? Do the farmers apply liquid fertilisers at the booting stage in October? In some of the photos the fields look a little pale. Lacking in nitrogen and perhaps potassium?

Here in the northeast with so many villages lacking labour, a vast rice area is now broadcast seed sown. You can spot these fields a long way away as they are usually weedy and lacking in fertiliser. And nowadays a lot of farmers contract harvesting by small combines. What about in the north-hand or combine harvesting?

After generations of monoculture they seem to need copious amounts of fertilizer for anything to grow, along with herbicides to kill the weeds, poison to kill the snails and crabs.

Slowly things are becoming more mechanized here as well, with a mix of new and old methods. With only one crop per year, I get the feeling they continue to grow rice for cultural rather than economic reasons. The different planting methods and seed types produce an interesting patchwork of color, density and height which I quite enjoy looking at.

Then again what do I know. I’m not a farmer myself, I just live surrounded by fields, remaining an interested and sometime bemused observer.

[mozzieslapper]

Great pics guys, when is it harvested?

[cooked]

You'll find few people under the age of 40 prepared to do this work and I don't blame them. At the moment I am scouting around for alternative crops on my wife's farm but I am beginning to realise that the rhythm of work implicated by rice farming is not compatible with another crop that needs constant attention (like pepper or chili which were my first ideas). Cassava and sugar seem to be other equally low price crops with equivalent work patterns, same problems.

There are alternative methods of cultivating rice, utilising much less chemicals and pesticides, but like farmers the world over, the Thai peasant is resistant to change. It may look romantic to the outsider, and it is well that photographic records are kept. I think that unless the authorities get their act together soon, this style of subsistence farming will soon disappear.

One crop a year: my wife refuses to eat rice that come from biennial (if that's the correct word) cultures (most street food) and with time I have come to agree with her about the quality of the product. She and her family harvest a good quality rice, sell most of it for a pittance and have 50% of their food for the coming year provided for. ฿20 000 a year, that's how they do it - we have fish, chickens and ducks I Guess I could do it too, but don't intend to. A long way from Bangkok, huh?.

Edited August 2, 2012 by cooked

[T_Dog]

cooked..... You are quite right about how rice farming is a large part of the old culture of Thailand. The folks farming here are great people and they are not shy about hard work

and hot sun but like you say, not a person under 40 among them. Makes one wonder how long the art of rice farming will be around.

[villagefarang]

I used to think farming would die out in our village as the older generation passed on but strangely things seem to continue. If the need arises, often one of the children will return home to take care of the fields at least part of the time. If they are not really needed here, they are better off earning more money in the cities, but some do come back. I have seen people who I would never have expected to set foot in a rice paddy, take their place in the field, if reluctantly.

They are more apt to use modern methods to save time but they do bring in a crop. Still longterm, as they sell off their land or divide it into smaller and smaller plots, the corporations will probably take over the farming like they have done in much of the West.

[villagefarang]

Great pics guys, when is it harvested?

Around here they harvest in November.

[mozzieslapper]

Thanks VillageF, do they also do a dry season crop near your place? If not, do they grow anything else in the dry season?

[villagefarang]

Thanks VillageF, do they also do a dry season crop near your place? If not, do they grow anything else in the dry season?

In the last few years they have taken to digging small ponds out in the fields to provide water for a crop of pumpkins (fuc_k thong or golden fuc_ks as I like to call them) during the dry season. They also have cassava, fruit trees and rubber trees they plant on the encroached land they work in the surrounding hills. I have noticed some neighbors potting pumpkin seedling presently which I assume they will plant up in the hills during this rainy season, as well.

[villagefarang]

Okay it is not about rice farming but does anyone have an idea what kind of plants these are? There is only one place I have seen these on my Mt. Bike rides and there is never anyone around to ask. No noticeable flowers or fruit and the leaves seem to large and course for tea.

It is interesting how most farmers stick to a handful of crops but occasionally you come across one guy who is growing something different. On this same trail there is a guy growing what looks like eggplant that he picks and sells small, about the size of a large okra.

I will find out eventually but just thought I would post this here incase someone has seen this stuff before and knows what it is.

[cdmtdm]

thanks for the pics ...my gf says its a tea plant for sure ... but not sure what type ..what area are you in ?

[villagefarang]

thanks for the pics ...my gf says its a tea plant for sure ... but not sure what type ..what area are you in ?

Phaya Mengrai but this trail is in the hills heading toward Sop Pao area.

The leaves looked to waxy and thick to be tea but I guess they could be.

Edited August 8, 2012 by villagefarang

[WormFarmer]

The first two pics are tea, not sure about the third. The tea shown is not very well cared for by the look of it, too many gaps between the bushes (they should be in continuous rows with no breaks) and too much top growth. For many years I lived in Kenya in a tea growing area, so although not being a tea farmer myself I learnt a bit about what it should look like.

[villagefarang]

So I guess it must be tea of some sort but it just didn't look like the stuff up on Doi Mae Salong.