Weedy Rice Management

Weedy Rice Management

Tim Hammerich
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
With California Ag Today, I’m Tim Hammerich.

Weedy rice is a problem for a lot of California rice farmers. It’s actually the exact same species as domesticated rice, but since it is not domesticated it can cause problems in yields. Whitney Brim-DeForest is a University of California Cooperative Extension rice and wild rice advisor

Brim-DeForest… “When it goes to seed the seeds themselves will not remain on the seed head. They would all just shatter and fall on the ground. And so from the perspective of the growers, the fact that it shatters means that they wouldn't necessarily get as high of yields. And the dormancy would also cause a problem in that if they planted it, not all of it would come up.”

Brim-DeForest is recommending different approaches depending on whether or not growers have access to water in this dry year.

Brim-DeForest… “If growers don't have access to water, they would do a dry fallow. And in that case, they would just sort of monitor and see if anything came up. And if anything did come up, then they would go out and do a shallow tillage. If nothing came up, they would just leave it for the summer. If they do have access to water, then we are recommending that they do a managed fallow where they're flushing the field with water. Letting weedy rice and other weeds come up, and then either spraying with a non-selective herbicide or tilling.”

Contact your local farm advisor for more information.

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