Nandakumar Palaparambil

I keep the seeds in refrigerator, otherwise they loose viability soon. The variety which I have is 3-months duration, so they won't last more than 3-4 months after harvesting. I keep hearing that this is true with any rice variety, shorter the duration, shorted their germination viability.

Also it comes best with monsoon in my climate. Here pre-mosoon rains have started and I am planning to sow them in 2-3 weeks

Regards,
Nandan

Hi All,

What are the tropical leguminous perennial shrubs which can be grown for cut and mulch? Some options which I can see are Hedge Lucern and mexican sunflower (leguminous?)

Regards,
Nandan

Fenugreek doesn't thrive in this climate...also it is not perennial..horse gram is not perennial either...but I love its characteristics except that it is a creeper...Also recently saw a video where a person says his vegetables does not do well with white clover as ground cover...so it looks like Fukuoka San's natural farming has more details...also even Fukuoka san's family does not follow his methods as it is since it does not work for them...something to be studied more closely

I forgot to update this thread...finally I got Happy Hill rice from Japan. Mentioned about this in a casual chat with my school friend who had spent couple of years in Japan but now settled in India. He still had some contacts with his earlier friends and he checked with him and one person agreed to buy it and send it. Later payment through internet was tedious and he just drove to the Japanese seed shop which was close by and bought it. Later shipped it through his friend to India and I received it. I had tried USDA and they had promised to send but due to COVID situations, they didn't send it.

The first generation happy hill rice plants were very weak, but next generations are better. It performs well in upland condition and grain forming is much better, even with just moisture. I had tried 3-4 local traditional varieties but performance wise, this looks much better. But one issue is that since it matures 80-90 days depending on season, it fails to germinate if I keep it for long, that is how I lost old seeds. I keep this in refrigerator to avoid this and keeps cultivating in sample plots 2-3 times.

Yes, we have lots of indigenous variety, but suits me is only upland varieties since water availability is less, but still searching for variety which does well in upland.


Regards,
Nandan

If you are using no-till, first clear the land of weeds, tall plants can be cut using scythe and after that smaller grass can be cut using brush cutter. Then you can make small channels using a Homi hoe which has a sharp end, then seeds can be dropped and covered using foot or Homi hoe itself


Regards,
Nandan

Yes, Nikolls, that would have made more impact, if nothing happens with this,will try that. Meanwhile I am trying many other options,something would have worked, but because of Corona pandemic, things are bit slow everywhere.


Thanks & Regards,
Nandan

Thanks Patrick,

Yes, I keep cultivating a particular traditional seed which is suited for my climate and keep selecting it...one of the main reason is that it tastes excellent and quite resilient..What you mentioned is a perfect mechanism, keep selecting and the seed will be suitable for my local climate.

I had tried happy hill rice earlier, some of the features of it was attractive, even though never tasted it. One is that, it grows very well and produce good yield and also the grains does not fall easily...so it looks to be an attractive variety to keep.

https://farming-experiments.blogspot.com/2016/05/happy-hill-rice-2016-monsoon.html - some photos of my previous cultivation can be seen here



Regards,
Nandan

Hi All,

Anyone growing Fukuoka's Happy hill rice? I would like to get some seeds of this. I was growing these some time back, but lost the seeds. These seeds if kept uncultivated for a few months, does not germinate in my climate (Kerala,India). I still have some seeds, but they don't germinate any more. But they are amazing seeds, some photos of my earlier cultivation can be seen here https://farming-experiments.blogspot.com/2016/05/happy-hill-rice-2016-monsoon.html

There are two possibilities of getting these seeds, one from Japan and one in US. There is a seed company which sells this in Japan, but they can not ship it internationally hence some one in Japan has to buy it and then send it to you, in turn you can send a few seeds to me also

Another source is in US, here also, US citizens may be able to get this and send a few seeds back to me

Let me know if it works out for anyone here.


Regards,
Nandan

I use scythe for cutting long grass and the cover crop pureria javanica which I grow in coconut orchard. But for pathway cleaning where the grass is small, I still use a Honda brush cutter. Recently started using a Fokin hoe which is useful clearing small grasses in raised bed and also near small fruit tree saplings. For making raised beds, I use a long handled grub hoe, it is light weight so it is not tiring to use. I use this for digging holes for planting saplings also.

I use billhooks for cutting green manure trees...and recently started using chainsaw also for this purpose.

In India, I find lots of hand tools which are available in US/Europe is not available...


Regards,
Nandan

I lost those precious seeds...Those seeds does not germinate after 3-4 months, so I used to keep planting it, immediately after harvest. Once that was broken, so I left with some seeds which does not germinate. There are some people succeeded in germinating old seeds using hydrogen peroxide, sugar solution, Gibberlic acid etc...if you can find some experts to help you with this, I can send 10 seeds. Please copy your reply to p_k_nandanan@yahoo.com also


Regards,
Nandan