Rice Planting

December 18, 2025

We interrupt this journal to show you how to plant your rice, (as far as I know anyway). All I know is what I see which means I don't know a whole lot. But photos do tell me something.

Through the centuries rice in SE Asia has been the staple food. There has always been a huge amount of labor associated with growing and harvesting rice. In recent years machines have been invented and introduced and techniques have been changed which have made life much easier for most Thai rice farmers. Even in just the past handful of years we have seen things change dramatically in terms of machinery.

I just wanted to show you a bit since we are now in the central valley of Thailand where most of the rice is grown. We have never been in this area at this time of year and we are a little surprised that it is rice planting season. Apparently the rice farmers in the central valley are able to grow at least three crops of rice per year - one reason Thailand is the second biggest rice exporter in the world behind India. There are a lot of poor in Thailand but we do not see hunger being a big problem or begging or homelessness. Rice is extremely important and I'm glad new innovations have taken place so that the work is not so back breaking as it always was.

First, a little bit of water is let into the paddy and let sit for a few days to soften up the clay which is a large portion of the soil. Then it is plowed with blades which you have all seen on regular tractors. That, too, is a recent development, up from water buffalo pulling a single blade.

Then water is let into the paddy and various contraptions are driven over the large clay clods to break them down.

Eventually the clay gives up and totally disintegrates into a fine mud.

They go over the mud many times to get the consistency perfect for rice roots to take hold.

When the mud is of this consistency and with this amount of water or maybe just slightly less, rice seed is broadcast over the entire area.

There can't be too much water at this stage or the rice seed will actually rot. It's a very fragile stage and the moisture level has to be perfect for the seed to germinate and the tiny roots to take hold.

The marks were made from the last contraption that went over it as the seed was being broadcast.

See how the rice seedlings are solid - no rows. And see how there is basically no standing water at all at this stage. When the rice is about six inches tall they will begin to flood the paddy with water but the depth has to be monitored so there is not too much.

But wait! See how these seedlings are in rows. There is this second method of planting rice now and it is not that back-breaking method of bending over and planting by hand.

The rice is too perfectly spaced and the rows are also perfect which means that there are machines that now plant little hanks of rice seedlings.

These plastic mats are used and placed right on soft soil. Three to five seeds are placed per hole. When the seedlings are about six to eight inches tall the mats are carefully pulled up, put on trucks and transported to where a paddy is ready to be planted.

But there is one part of this rice planting story that is still a mystery to me. I have never seen this machine that plants the hanks of seedlings from the little plastic holes. Further research is needed and when I finally see the machine I will photograph it for you. But that long thing on the motorbike has something to do with that machine. The plastic mats must move on it.

I also don't know why the machine that plants in rows and spaces the plants perfectly does not leave marks in the mud. This mystery needs to be solved. I hope I can bring you the answers you desperately need. Also, I don't know why some rice seeds are broadcast and some are planted in little plastic holes in mats. Different kinds of rice maybe? So many questions!

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Steve Miller/GrampiesWe eagerly await your further discoveries and insights into the mysteries of rice growing.
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1 month ago

Scott AndersonIt's exhausting imagining the manual labor involved in breaking down the clay before modern methods became available.
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1 month ago

Ron SuchanekThat's a lotta rice out there!
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2 weeks ago