Planting wild rice?

[lungslicer]

Just wondering if anyone out there has ever planted any wildrice? I am hoping to plant some in a small private pond that seems to be perfect for it. I was wondering if I have to buy some special strain from MN. Any info would be great.

[swamptiger]

I have. I harvested some wild rice from a local river, and mixed the seeds with clay to make a ball and dropped them in about 6 to 12 inches of water. If you have muskrats in the pond, they love to eat the young shoots.

[leechmann]

I have harvested rice for many years. I've heard of making mud balls and planting them that way. I think if you were going to try to seed a whole pond, that I would go ricing and get maybe 50 or 100 pounds of rice and then just bring it back to the pond you want to seed and broadcast spread it, with a hand spreader or just throw it by hand. It will grow if that pond if suitable for growing rice.

[swamptiger]

If I remember right I was told to do the seeding late in the fall after the ducks have left. In my case, it didn't work out - I think too many muskrats for the amount of rice I planted.. The rice disappeared after a year or two.

[Tom7227]

What sort of water does wild rice need - depth - how deep, moving water or still, type of bottom, competition from other plants, do the ducks eat rice that has sunk or do they eat the stuff that's still on the plant, what do you do to keep the mud balls together ????

Find answers to these questions before you spend any money on it or you may just be PITW.

[swamptiger]

If you want some expert advice, go to the Upper Red Lake forum and talk to Kelly. He raises paddy rice.