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Japanese Balcony Rice Paddy (Final) Harvest
- Thread starter Tim.jp
- Start date
Tim.jp
Member
Re: Japanese Balcony Rice Paddy (Part 3) Planted!
Thanks for the encouraging comments Matty1983, bizbaz, darren636, and D1gg3r.
I live just into the countryside on the edge of the greater Tokyo urban sprawl. Yokohama is 20km to the east and Mount Fuji is 60km to the west.
At this stage, I wasn't confident of getting enough nutrients to the rice for it to live, never mind produce grains!
Thanks for the encouraging comments Matty1983, bizbaz, darren636, and D1gg3r.
I live just into the countryside on the edge of the greater Tokyo urban sprawl. Yokohama is 20km to the east and Mount Fuji is 60km to the west.
At this stage, I wasn't confident of getting enough nutrients to the rice for it to live, never mind produce grains!
Tim.jp
Member
Re: Japanese Balcony Rice Paddy (Part 4) Flowers
July: Interesting flowers on "boring" plants.
Canadian pondweed (Elodea canadensis) is without doubt the most ubiquitous of freshwater plants sold in aquarium shops, but this setup reminded me once again of how ingenious and pretty the flowers are. A little bubble of air to get to the surface - how marvelous is that?
This emersed plant from the ADA mix grew well and produced tiny yellow flowers.
Water Hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes), true to its reputation, grew like wild fire and had to be yanked out regularly to stop it taking over and blocking light to the plants below. Despite me hacking it back, it still flowered several times over the summer and brightened up my morning.
July: Interesting flowers on "boring" plants.
Canadian pondweed (Elodea canadensis) is without doubt the most ubiquitous of freshwater plants sold in aquarium shops, but this setup reminded me once again of how ingenious and pretty the flowers are. A little bubble of air to get to the surface - how marvelous is that?
This emersed plant from the ADA mix grew well and produced tiny yellow flowers.
Water Hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes), true to its reputation, grew like wild fire and had to be yanked out regularly to stop it taking over and blocking light to the plants below. Despite me hacking it back, it still flowered several times over the summer and brightened up my morning.
Tim.jp
Member
Re: Japanese Balcony Rice Paddy (Part 4) Flowers
Sunshine.
Rice growing.
Sunshine.
Rice growing.
Lindy
Member
Re: Japanese Balcony Rice Paddy (Part 4) Flowers
Hard to imagine sunshine as being in scotland it seems a long time since we've seen it but lovely seeing your sunshine!
Hard to imagine sunshine as being in scotland it seems a long time since we've seen it but lovely seeing your sunshine!
ghostsword
Member
Re: Japanese Balcony Rice Paddy (Part 3) Planted!
Great work.. inspirational..
b1zbaz said:
Great work.. inspirational..
Re: Japanese Balcony Rice Paddy (Part 4) Flowers
Hi all,
Just fantastic, the little yellow flower looks like a Ludwigia. Not sure what Amano uses but Ludwigia brevipes,(or L x lacustris, L. arculata x repens) looks likely from the flower.
cheers Darrel
Hi all,
Just fantastic, the little yellow flower looks like a Ludwigia. Not sure what Amano uses but Ludwigia brevipes,(or L x lacustris, L. arculata x repens) looks likely from the flower.
cheers Darrel
Re: Japanese Balcony Rice Paddy (Part 4) Flowers
Tim
Nice journal.
Really enjoyed that
hoggie
Tim
Nice journal.
Really enjoyed that
hoggie
hydrophyte
Member
- Joined
- 22 Aug 2009
- Messages
- 1,040
Re: Japanese Balcony Rice Paddy (Part 4) Flowers
This is a lovely setup.
That emersed foliage in the latest photos is beautiful!
This is a lovely setup.
That emersed foliage in the latest photos is beautiful!
Tim.jp
Member
Re: Japanese Balcony Rice Paddy (Part 5) Boiled shrimp anyon
With daytime highs over 30C continuously in August and water temperatures likely to reach 35C+ with direct sunlight, the survival of this setup was always in doubt.
This was typical for mid-afternoon temperatures! However, the aim of this project from the beginning was to be low tech and I couldn't justify running a cooler, especially when saving electric was still the order of the day in these parts.
One Yamato numa ebi down.
Removed from the water it quickly turned prawn pink.
With daytime highs over 30C continuously in August and water temperatures likely to reach 35C+ with direct sunlight, the survival of this setup was always in doubt.
This was typical for mid-afternoon temperatures! However, the aim of this project from the beginning was to be low tech and I couldn't justify running a cooler, especially when saving electric was still the order of the day in these parts.
One Yamato numa ebi down.
Removed from the water it quickly turned prawn pink.
OllieNZ
Member
Re: Japanese Balcony Rice Paddy (Part 5) Boiled shrimp?
Can you set up a house fan to keep a constant breeze over it? May be enough. Time to get down the hardware store and get some shade cloth.....
Can you set up a house fan to keep a constant breeze over it? May be enough. Time to get down the hardware store and get some shade cloth.....
Tim.jp
Member
Re: Japanese Balcony Rice Paddy (Part 5) Boiled shrimp?
The "green curtain" did provide just enough shade to stop temperatures going even higher, despite taking a battering in the typhoon.
Apart from two shrimp, everything else survived the heat. Although not ideal, I guess medaka and rosy bitterling have some resistance to high temperatures because they naturally live in this kind of environment.
The "goya" gourds are edible if picked before they turn yellow.
Note the visitor sitting on top of the air con.
The step layout for the substrate was intended to give a shallower area for the rice and a deeper area for other plants and fish.
Grains appear. Very exciting!
The "green curtain" did provide just enough shade to stop temperatures going even higher, despite taking a battering in the typhoon.
Apart from two shrimp, everything else survived the heat. Although not ideal, I guess medaka and rosy bitterling have some resistance to high temperatures because they naturally live in this kind of environment.
The "goya" gourds are edible if picked before they turn yellow.
Note the visitor sitting on top of the air con.
The step layout for the substrate was intended to give a shallower area for the rice and a deeper area for other plants and fish.
Grains appear. Very exciting!
Tim.jp
Member
Re: Japanese Balcony Rice Paddy (Part 6) Grains developing
September
The plant on the near left was a cutting from my indoor tank and it was interesting to see the difference in development under different conditions.
Top view of the same plant just emerging from the water.
And the same plant (right) in the indoor tank with LED lighting and CO2.
With CO2 it grows long thin feathery leaves and gains 5cm+ per week. As such it gets cut and replanted before it has a chance to put out shoots. Outside with no CO2 it grew really slowly and I didn't cut it once in 4 months. The leaves are stubbier and it puts out lots of shoots.
A view of the whole aquarium with rice leaves starting to yellow, which indicates harvest time is approaching.
I asked a local farmer when he was going to harvest and he said in about 3 weeks time. As my seedlings went in a week earlier, I guess mine could be ready in about two weeks.
The ears of rice starting to bend over under the weight of the grains.
No match for the pros! A local paddy field at the same time as my rice in the previous picture.
Clearly a lot more grains on each plant than on mine.
Similar emersed plants to the one I added seen here in a real paddy field.
... and one similar to the other emersed plant that I added can be seen in the foreground of this shot. The arrow head on this variety is more elongated than the one I bought.
September
The plant on the near left was a cutting from my indoor tank and it was interesting to see the difference in development under different conditions.
Top view of the same plant just emerging from the water.
And the same plant (right) in the indoor tank with LED lighting and CO2.
With CO2 it grows long thin feathery leaves and gains 5cm+ per week. As such it gets cut and replanted before it has a chance to put out shoots. Outside with no CO2 it grew really slowly and I didn't cut it once in 4 months. The leaves are stubbier and it puts out lots of shoots.
A view of the whole aquarium with rice leaves starting to yellow, which indicates harvest time is approaching.
I asked a local farmer when he was going to harvest and he said in about 3 weeks time. As my seedlings went in a week earlier, I guess mine could be ready in about two weeks.
The ears of rice starting to bend over under the weight of the grains.
No match for the pros! A local paddy field at the same time as my rice in the previous picture.
Clearly a lot more grains on each plant than on mine.
Similar emersed plants to the one I added seen here in a real paddy field.
... and one similar to the other emersed plant that I added can be seen in the foreground of this shot. The arrow head on this variety is more elongated than the one I bought.
Nathaniel Whiteside
Member
Re: Japanese Balcony Rice Paddy (Part 6) Grains developing
Looks like Pogostemon Erectus in your indoor tank, Looking nice mate. Love the concept of this.
Looks like Pogostemon Erectus in your indoor tank, Looking nice mate. Love the concept of this.
hydrophyte
Member
- Joined
- 22 Aug 2009
- Messages
- 1,040
Re: Japanese Balcony Rice Paddy (Part 6) Grains developing
That is so cool! This makes me want to try to grow rice in a riparium setup. I suppose that to grow rice indoors you would need to shine very bright light on it. You must have used a lot of root ferts as well.
That is so cool! This makes me want to try to grow rice in a riparium setup. I suppose that to grow rice indoors you would need to shine very bright light on it. You must have used a lot of root ferts as well.
Tim.jp
Member
Thanks for the plant name Whitey89, from looking at pictures on the internet, I'm sure you are right with "Pogostemon Erectus". My LFS is good at labeling plants with scientific names, I just didn't take notes when I bought this because I wasn't planning to do a journal at the time.
Tim.jp
Member
When the day arrived, a combine harvester was not required!
Aquarium stubble
