I remember back when I was a kid, when we went to visit relatives in MN, they would get wild rice from somewhere well, wild. Along with wild blueberries. But I don't remember ever getting to go see where it grew. It was up by Bemijidi somewhere.

I don't know if it could be defined as "wild" or not but I grew rice in a raised bed last year. It did quite well until the heat/drought lasted and lasted! It does not need to be flooded - that is done for weed control.

{{gwi:19175}}

Mike

Hmmm, my memories will be from when I was a kid... my parents grew some in the small pond below our house, presumably it prefers to be totally wet? It grew quite well without any intervention on our part, and we harvested a bit... and that's where the experiment sort of failed because it has a tough, sort of scratchy hull that we couldn't quite figure out how to remove. I don't know if you can use wild rice from the store, it has the hull removed and possibly has been hit with high heat, but maybe someone else can tell you more.

Cheers!

My understanding is that hulled rice, like oats, will not germinate.

I have a southern variety, "blue bonnet", to try in florida soon.

My understanding is that hulled rice, like oats, will not germinate.

I have a southern variety, "blue bonnet", to try in florida soon.

Very few types of rice grow outside of water. Rice in the store will not germinate, just like the corn in canned corn will not germinate.

Dan

From what I have heard, removing the husk is a tedious process. The Native Americans would parch it first and then thresh it by placing it into a lined pit and mooshing it with their feet. Below is a link to a page describing the process as practiced by today's Ojibwa people.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ricing the Native way

>> Very few types of rice grow outside of water. Blue Bonnet does quite well. My reading is that all upland rice will.

Mike

My reading is that all upland rice will.

These vars are a small % of all rice. If you can get upland seed now for planting, that's great and maybe time to play your lottery numbers. Next year and you can prepare your beds and hope the weather is favorable.

Dan

Wild rice is a different genus(Zizania)than Asian rice (Oryza) They are not closely related. I have heard of people in Michigan cultivating wild rice. It was in shallow water, not dry land. I'll post again if I can find more info on that.

Testing, testing. One two, one two.... Something weird is going on. I posted almost exactly what naturegirl said about wild rice and rice being different species last night and it has not appeared. That's the second time it's happened over the weekend. So I'm just trying again to see if it shows up.

Yes, wild rice and Asian rice are quite different. However, I found the posts re Asian rice interesting even though they did not apply to my question.

If I understand correctly, wild rice grows in water the entire season. So I would need to have a pond to grow it. Come to think of it, I have heard of wild rice as a cultivated crop in the upper mid-west. I would also need to get raw, unprocessed seed. Under my present circumstances I guess I will not be growing wild rice.

Jim

I used to have a homesteading book that talked about your pond design having an area for rice growing and the depth needed and access. Don't seem to have it any more.

Nonetheless, I'm not the expert but I'm unaware of the new world rice vars being upland varieties (willing to be corrected), so if you are growing the Asiatic vars your growing season and heat will have to match or be close and you'll need a seed source and availability.

Dan