Weeding for paddy

Farm Questions
1

Hello,

I have planted paddy row by row in 7 hectare land.The distance between two rows in 8 inches. The problem I am having is weeding by cono-weeder, because the weeder is of 8 inches dimension and if I use this, there will be damage for the crops.
Please give me solution for weeding through some other weeding device, so that I can save labour cost.

Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Siddhartha.

2

You can use azolla culture to suppress weeds. These also fixes nitrogen when alive and after water is drained it will dry and become a good natural fertiliser.

3

Thanks for your reply. Can you please explain when and how to develop azolla culture at paddy?
How it control weed?

4

You can leave culture 2 days after transplantation. It will give good results when FYM is applied.

They spread in the water making thick layer not to leave sunrays to pass below and dont allow any weed to germinate. When water is drained they get dried by and become good natural fertiliser.

5

advantages of azolla
youtube.com/watch?v=kJyIeksKaEU

in hindi
youtu.be/AwFQOreHYKk

in telugu
youtu.be/R-u3PBaeZSE

In odisha
youtu.be/ubZdUPb_-SQ

6

Thanks Mr. Sri.
Just few questions:

  1. If sun rays does not reach at the root, then will it not harm paddy?
  2. In which other corps/ vegetables/ fruits we can use azolla?
  3. Now my paddy is 1 and half months old; can I use azolla?

Regards,
Siddhartha.

7

Siddhartha,

I am assuming you are talking about this years paddy and not for next season. If so, weed would have already started to emerge.
I am not against using azolla. To start and maintain azolla culture water logging is necessary. it will dry out when no water is avilable, but by then paddy would have established and weed will not bother paddy. I have not yet tried it. Was initially planing to do it. Not just that azolla ultimately lands in the water bodies completely covering surface.

link below. farmer uses a cycle to de-weed.
hindu.com/seta/2010/04/29/st … 601500.htm
You can try using iron fork hoes attached to a motorcycle or some other mechanised device. Using a cycle on 7 hectares is not going to work. You will need a skilled labor to achieve this task.
this will also add little soil on the root of paddy. you will achive good results(roots will not damage under scorching heat)

What I do is when I de-weed, I use the same weed as mulch. it suppress growth of the same weed or others. as some weed grow back just from a hair like root.

Traditionally in Kerala farmers add cashew nut leaf to control weed just after paddy emerges(some add the leafs just after tilling, it also acts as compost and paddy roots find it easy to spread). You can try any flat leaves which stick to the ground. so no weed can emerge. (but 7 hectares is to much I believe).

8
  1. No Paddy roots dont need sun light.
  2. Other than paddy no other crop you can use azolla.
  3. I would say it is late. It has to be done before weeds emerge. It is better to go with Anoop’s suggestion now. You can go for Azolla in next crop.
9

Thanks Mr. Sri.
Really I am glad that you give me the solution.
I will do this at next crops.

Regards,
Siddhartha.

10

Sri Sir, so this has to be done at that time of planting the saplings? Also does simply spilling the Azolla seeds after the plantion it works?

Can anyone suggest what I should be doing with my 2 acer paddy which is almost 3.5 months old.

Thanks,
Srinivas

11

Few pointers:

  1. 3.5 months is very late. it needs water logging. by this time you would have drained the water.
  2. Since you have used urea, using azolla makes more dosage of nitrogen and make your paddy grains shed in the field before harvesting.
  3. You can do it for next season.
  4. Azolla seeds are called Azolla culture. In fact they are not seeds. you can get it from nearest KVK or local milk federation or horticulture or agirculture offices. This depends on your local govt scheme.