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Planting a Rice Paddy Activity:

To start off with, here are my first experiments with growing a rice paddy:

Aerial of Dry Planted Rice Plants

Step 1:  Sample rice seeds and select those that grow under conditions in your house/garden/office

Step 2:  Create a Rice Paddy using:

  • Compost
  • Top Soil
  • Gravel to weigh down the soil
  • Water about 2cm above the soil line
  • Sprinkle seeds along the soil below the water line
  • Keep in a sunny and warm area

Wet Paddy Phase 1 Long Grain seeds
Wet Paddy Phase 1 Short Grain Seeds

Left (Long Grain Brown Rice) and Right (Short Grain Brown Rice) after only 3 days in the Rice Paddy.
You can immediately see which rice plant is best suited to the environment.

Paddy Maintenance:

Due to the lack of natural surface water movement I then skimmed some of the organic buildup off the surface area and monitored the water levels, growth and

Wet Paddy Tank in situ
Wet Paddy profile of water and soil

After almost 2 weeks now, you can see a marked growth in the rice plants below.  This will be tracked here until a harvest is made possible.

Wet Paddy phase 2 with longer stalks

To help us understand the development and context of rice paddy agriculture and growth we will be tracking several rice paddies created during the Festival of British Archaeology.  Each group has been asked to create an ideal Rice Paddy given the following choices of rice plant type, agriculture, and materials to use.  In total there are 4 Paddies created, which will be displayed here and tracked until an optimum grow condition is established and a rice yield has been successfully measured.  Check back soon for photos and further details and don't forget to skeep in touch with how your rice plants are developing!

MaterialSeedWater
CompostLong GrainDeep Water
Top SoilShort GrainDry Soil
GravelBasmatiShallow Water
Cling filmSushiRegular Changing (Irrigation)
 Archaeological Japonica 
 Archaeological Indica 
 Wells Rice