Rice weeds and organic controls.

The rice plant is a water baby, but so are it’s competitors. One of these is the Cyperus Iria L, commonly known as the ‘rice flat sedge’. It is an annual crop just like rice. The weed establishes quickly in the field soon after rice plants are transplanted or direct-seeded. One plant can produce up to 3,000 seeds and when not controlled, it can reduce yield of rice by as much as 40%. On the flip side, this weed may not be so much of a villain. It can also act as alternate host to other rice pests such as green leafhoppers, and plant pathogenic microorganisms.

ORGANIC CONTROL:To organically control this weed, exposing it to many of the usual methods of weed control in rice and other crops usually does the trick. These include hand-pulling, manual and mechanical tillage and trampling in puddled fields. Flooding (An organic weed control system that will be discussed in our next post) also has a major suppressive effect during the early growth stages of C. iria but established plants are difficult to control in this way and can tolerate 90 cm of floodwater for four days.

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