Rice

Rice is one of the oldest food plants, originating in Southeast Asia and a species of swamp, although in its phylogenesis there are different genotypes capable of carrying out the cycle in non-submerged soil with the sole contribution of high atmospheric precipitation. The antiquity of the culture is confirmed by Chinese and Southeast Asian archaeological finds dating back to 6000-7000 BC. In the West, the first news about rice came after Alexander the Great’s expedition to the east, but the commercialization began only with the Arabs who cultivated it in Spain in the 8th century. Rice is one of the most widely consumed grains in the world and a substantial portion of the diet of many Asian countries, where it is grown extensively. Rice is produced in about 120 countries worldwide, but China and India together account for more than 50 percent of both rice production globally.

Rice is a cereal belonging to the grass family and to the Oryza genus. The most widely cultivated species belong to the sativa species, of which three geographical subspecies are distinguished: Indica, to which the subspecies cultivated in India, Southeast Asian countries, and southern China, javanica, limited to the equatorial belt of Indonesia and japonica, to the which are referable the forms cultivated in Japan, Korea, northern China, Egypt, Turkey, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and North America.

Rice is an annual species, cespitose with a fibrous root system consisting of very numerous adventitious roots. The leaves have an elongated lamina, an entire margin, and a rough surface due to the presence of short and stiff hairs on both pages.

The inflorescence is a panicle, and the flowers are hermaphrodites.

The caryopsis, compressed laterally, of a more elongated shape in the spp. Indica and javanica and more rounded in spp. Japonica is anatomically similar to that of wheat and related cereals.

The biological cycle of rice takes place through the phases of:

Germination: in this phase the rice has specific thermal and humidity needs, but it is also particularly sensitive to the amount of oxygen available. As for humidity, germination begins whether the seeds are placed in a fairly humid environment or immersed in water. The germination phase is considered completed when the plant has formed the second-third leaf.

Tillering: tillering begins with the development of a shoot from the axillary bud of the lowest leaf and can continue by other buds of the primary and secondary culm. The development of the tillering shoots is accompanied by that of adventitious roots, which soon exceed in importance those of embryonic origin. The differentiation of the flower apex marks the beginning of the reproductive period and the end of the tillering period.

Stem elongation: this phase is characterized by the elongation of the internodes, the growth of the leaves and the progressive development of the inflorescence. The stem elongation ends with the reaching of the maximum height of the fertile culms of the plant and with the emission of the inflorescences.

Flowering: flowering is gradual starting from the final part of the panicle of the main culm and continuing in the tillering culms according to the order of their formation.

Ripening: in this phase the caryopsis swells and increases its concentration in dry matter.

Rice has great possibilities to adapt to various environments but has high thermal demands. It is cultivated from tropical and sub-tropical areas of origin up to temperate ones, from altitudes close to sea level up to 2600 m in Nepal. Regarding its cultivation, the following are distinguished:
  • rainfed, lowland rice: from lowland areas and dependent on rains and upland rice: from equatorial and tropical mountainous areas totally dependent on high rainfall;
  • irrigated rice, in areas where cultivation takes place with regular submersion of the soil and careful control of the water level during the entire cycle;
  • deep water and floating rice grown with high water levels.
As it moves away from the more favorable environments, rice loses the ideal thermal regime characterized by high temperatures and not subject to sudden variations. It becomes indispensable for an increasingly longer time, which can also affect the entire cultivation cycle, the presence of a layer of water of suitable thickness that submerges the ground and the plant for part of its height. This water performs the function of “thermal flywheel” which is particularly important, for production purposes, during germination and especially during the phases ranging from differentiation of the inflorescences to flowering. The plant is not very demanding as regards the characteristics of the soil, however the ideal soil for cultivation is that with a subacid reaction, silty or silty-clay, 30-40 cm deep.

Nitrogen (N) is undoubtedly the element that can affect the productivity of the crop by acting directly on the growth of the plant, its size, the number of tillering stems, the weight of the grain and its protein content. Nitrogen absorption increases during the tillering phase and reaches its maximum after flowering. During ripening, absorption is significantly reduced, and the element is mainly translocated from the leaves to the grains. Although less evident, the influence of phosphorus (P) on production is very important especially during vegetative development during which it favors the tillering and elongation of the roots. During the reproductive period, it favors the early flowering and therefore the ripening process, especially in cold climate conditions. The absorption of phosphorus is slower than that of nitrogen until the flower beginnings are formed; subsequently the absorption increases until after flowering and is exhausted during ripening. Potassium (K) is an important enzymatic cofactor, its action affects the size and weight of the grains, favors the thickening of cell walls. It is mainly absorbed from tillering to flowering.

The crop also benefits from the application of products with a biostimulant action, based on beneficial microorganisms and vegetable protein hydrolysates. These products are able to stimulate the emergence and root development in the early stages of seedling development, to improve the availability of nutrients in the soil, to increase the yield from a quantitative and qualitative standpoint, to reduce the negative impact of climatic stresses and to increase the nutrient use efficiency (NUE). The application of biostimulants increases the environmental and economic sustainability of the production system.

Sample Fertilization Plan

Hello Nature rice seed coating

Seed coating

Enhance nutrient availability and provide useful bacteria
Improve emergence and root development

OR

Improve emergence and root development
Hello Nature rice before ploughing

Before ploughing

Increase the yield
Improve soil fertility (chemical, physical and biological)

OR

Improve soil fertility (chemical, physical and biological)
Hello Nature rice sowing

Sowing

Enhance nutrient availability and provide useful bacteria
Hello Nature rice leaf development

Leaf development

Apply TRAINER together with urea or UAN. Increase tolerance to abiotic stress, reduce stress coming from herbicide applications and improve Nitrogen Use Efficiency.

OR

Increase tolerance to abiotic stress and reduce stresses coming from herbicide applications and improve NUE
Hello Nature rice tillering

Tillering

Apply TRAINER together with urea or UAN. Increase tolerance to abiotic stress, reduce stress coming from herbicide applications and improve Nitrogen Use Efficiency.

OR

Increase tolerance to abiotic stress and reduce stresses coming from herbicide applications and improve NUE

Request a fertilization plan

Some products may not be available in your region. Reach out to a sales rep to get a fertilization plan that fits your needs.

PRODUCT BENEFITS

Our seed treatment strategy is the best solution to start your cultivation. It is the sustainable basis of the entire crop cycle, allows for better germination, increases the resistance of plants to abiotic stresses, the availability of nutrients and the root development. Our seed treatments solutions have polyvalent and high persistence action that stimulate and support the development of the plant throughout the entire crop cycle. COVERON STIM is an innovative biostimulant specifically designed for seed treatment. It is rich in peptides 100% of vegetal origin and contains the exclusive peptide LRPP (Lateral Root Promoting Peptide), that has a strong and direct action on germination and roots development. COVERON is an innovative biostimulant for seed treatment containing different selected, patented, and proprietary beneficial microbials. It is the first commercial formulation combining mycorrhizae and Trichoderma atroviride, also suitable for organic farmig.

Organic fertilization provides organic matter and plant essential nutrients to the soil. It is important to reduce the necessity of repeated application of synthetic fertilizers to maintain soil fertility. For this reason, it is important to use organic fertilizers

in pre-sowing, capable of improving the physical, chemical, and biological fertility. SONAR 7-15-3 or ISIDE 12-5-15 are the ideal solutions for the organic fertilization of rice in pre-sowing. SONAR guarantees a great quantity of nutrients during the entire growth cycle of the plant, due to

the gradual release of organic nitrogen and phosphorus. It is suitable for fertilization of grains thanks to a favorable ratio between N and P.

ISIDE is a complete organo-mineral fertilizer having a high level of gradual release nitrogen and potassium, provides a large quantity of

nutrients over the entire plant growth cycle. 

All growers, conventional and organic, have an interest in gaining back the yield potential lost due to abiotic stresses. It’s proven that on the average, farmers can harvest only 50% of the yield potential. The yield gap can be caused by biotic and abiotic stresses with a stronger negative impact of abiotic stresses. In fact, abiotic stresses like heat, cold, salt, drought and flooding caused from 65 to 75% of the yield gap, while biotic stress only 25 to 35%. ​

TRAINER has been shown to consistently help plants better recover from stress events also after herbicide application by increasing antioxidant supply, stimulating antioxidant biosynthesis, and activating antioxidant defense enzymes. PSPs maintained higher photosynthetic activity and a better nutritional status in the shoot tissues leading to a higher crop performance. ​There are many protein hydrolysate products on the market, however, the composition of the products varies widely. With TRAINER, the concentration of peptides is the key and peptides have high availability to plants because they are in a ready-to-use form. Besides, foliar application of TRAINER on rice, directly and indirectly improve Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUE) by enhancing both the uptake and utilization efficiency of nutrients.​

Nutrients in the soil are often unavailable for plants but specific bacteria are able to solubilize mineral elements and make them available for plant uptake. Besides, vegetal protein hydrolysates can modify the microbiome on plant tissues increasing the microbial biodiversity and especially plant growth promoting bacteria. GLYSS is a new generation plant biostimulant based on the combination of beneficial bacteria and vegetal protein hydrolysates including Plant Stimulating Peptides (PSP) enriched with Lateral Root Promoting Peptide (LRPP). GLYSS is suitable for seed treatment, but it can also be applied as foliar spray with herbicides. Glyss enhancing nutrient availability and providing useful bacteria increases the yield and quality, with positive impact also on soil biodiversity.

Plan your harvest with our nutrient removal calculator

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