Hello Hive
Today we are hand-weeding our rice farms, having finalized our transplanting/planting of seedlings and seeds. It is late September already and very late to plant any more grain. We will just make good with what we have and take care of the little portion of rice in our field rather than working so hard to cover the entire field.
Any seeds planted at this moment have no chance of producing any grains as food before this year, and farming season will finally be over. Rather than trying to cover the field with more seeds and little hope, dad has advised that we leave out the remaining portions of the field idle for the year. It is better to focus on what we have on the ground rather than chasing what we cannot catch up with.
We didn't get uniform growth as they were not all planted at the same time. Some portions of the farm are doing well; hence, our weeding is starting from that part. While for the other portions of the farm, you can see how scanty the field is due to the seedlings that withered away.
We decided not to use herbicides as the rice field this year is not seriously bushy. Even while weeding, we are just picking up the few grasses in between the rice plants. The addition of herbicides before planting kept the grasses at bay compared to previous years in which we had to apply herbicides after two months of transplanting the rice.
Over the years, we have found different ways to use herbicides, both to reduce their effect on our crops and the foods we eat in the end. At this point, once our weeding is completed, we will be adding fertilizers next and then waiting to see what becomes of our grains in the end.
We barely planted half of our 2-acre rice field. Out of the half planted, only about a portion of that is doing well so far, and with this, we can see the drastic effect the drought had on our crops.
At least we have learned better, and I believe if such situations play out in the coming years, we would know better to use pumping machines and generators to keep our farms alive.
I do hope that farmers in our parts of our country haven't experienced this so that we won't be having scarcity of grain across the country for the coming year.