Wild Rice

[Angstman]

Does anybody know where I can find wild rice seed? I've been thinking of planting about 1-2 acres of it this fall, but I can't seem to find any seed locally (Mankato,St.Paul,Brainerd). Will I have to wait until this fall during the wild rice season? Also is there any laws prohibiting me from planting it? It's not on my land, however the swamp is on a tax forfeited parcel adjacent from my property. Any help will be appreciated

[Jackpine Rob]

In my experience, real wild rice (not the commercial grown stuff) can be a little touchy about conditions. The Ph of the water has to be right, the bottom composition is important, and the water has to have some flow to it. A basin without inflow/outflow probably won't work. There are places that will sell you seed, but if I were you my first call would be to the local DNR wildlife guys and gals, to discuss IF this would work, and more importantly, whether you could get yourself into trouble doing so. With the rules about transporting plants between waterbodies, I'd be surprised if there wasn't some sort of permit necessary.

If you're thinking about attracting ducks, there are other plants out there that benefit waterfowl, many native to your area. Manipulation of water levels is often the first step, but I'd be willing to bet that the County/State would frown on you messing with the water levels without authorization.

[Angstman]

In my experience, real wild rice (not the commercial grown stuff) can be a little touchy about conditions. The Ph of the water has to be right, the bottom composition is important, and the water has to have some flow to it. A basin without inflow/outflow probably won't work.

I should have added the location of where I want to plant the rice. My cabin is near the Crosby/Deerwood area and there is a good amount of native rice in the area. Here is a map of the lake I'm on

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/data/lakemaps/c2613010.pdf

In the SE corner of the lake there is a small channel about 4-6ft wide that goes into the marsh. I was thinking that I could plant about 1 or 2 acres around that area and to the NE a little bit. The water flows pretty steady around that area and the water depth is 5ft or less so I think it could be a suitable place to plant.

But before I even buy any seed I'm going to take your advice and contact the DNR to see if I'm even able to plant on the tax forfeited land.

Thanks for the info

[B. Amish]

Here's some infor on planting wild rice. 5 ft sounds way too deep for it to grow.

http://efotg.sc.egov.usda.gov//references/public/MN/WildRiceJobsheet.pdf

[Angstman]

5ft is the max depth of the marsh, I would say most of the water is less than 2 or 3ft deep. It mostly fills out with lillypads in the summer so it's kind of hard to tell.

[Jackpine Rob]

That is an excellent primer on wild rice! Covers the basics real well.

The DNR in NE Minnesota is doing beaver control as part of an ongoing project to bring back historical rice beds. By knocking back the beaver population in some flowages, the water levels are lowered to allow rice to come back. In my opinion, the estimates of how long dormant rice can survive is far too low - I have seen rice come back when the beds were basically dead/submerged for well over a decade. Absent a good water level control mechanism, beds tend to come and go with the weather. I was on was of those beaver-control lakes last fall, and the increase in the rice beds in just one summer was astonishing.

[Angstman]

Thanks for the link. I think when I go up there this weekend, I'll do some scouting and look for suitable places to plant. But after reading that link my expectations are pretty low, but hopefully I'll find a spot.

[kelly-p]

A basin without inflow/outflow probably won't work

I've grown Wild Rice commercially for most of my life and it does not need current to grow. Too much current will pull the plants out of the soil when the rice is in the floating leaf stage. Ducks first come into wild rice stands for the rice worms and stalk borer worms rather then the wild rice itself. The worms are a feast for the ducks especially when the worms are floating/swimming to cover on top of the water. Remember that if you are planting wild rice for ducks that if it is in too deep of water the puddle ducks (mallards/woodducks/teal) can not reach the wild rice seeds that have fallen off the heads and sank to the bottom. Ducks will fly right over a stand of wild rice to get into a wet or damp grain field.

[Jackpine Rob]

With all due respect Kelly, I made the distinction in my first post about the differences between the altered and modified rice that is grown commercially and the actual real wild rice. In addition, you will have to concede that fresh water is introduced into the commercial paddies annually, and you simply don't have a bowl there with no regular inflow and outflow - it might happen annually with the GM rice, but it still happens.

Further, rice grows well in areas with current, although it often develops slightly different charactistics (for those of us who are true believers in the traditional rice we refer to it as "river rice"). Such rice typically has adapted to the conditions and produces thicker stalks, smaller grains, and ripens prior to the normal rice beds that come to mind. Some of the most prolific annual rice beds are in areas with regular current.

Your points about the rice worms are well-taken, and don't forget the plethora of lady-bugs and other insects that make a ripening rice bed their home!

[kelly-p]

the differences between the altered and modified rice that is grown commercially and the actual real wild rice

We cold argue that forever but in a commercial paddy you simply try to have a higher percentage of plants that do not drop their seeds as quickly. There are a lot of misconceptions out there. This was about ducks and we do not want to bore the other readers.

I did not say that rice would not grow where there is current. The worst thing for rice trying to grow is too much curent or a rapid increase of water depth. Either of which can pull the plants out of the soil during the floating leaf stage.

The rice in each watershed will have evolved into slightly different types of plants with different sized seeds depending on the soil. Usually lake or river rice will have longer kernals then rice from a commercial paddy. The longest kernels comes from Canada.

Back to the original question about finding seed. There are companies that sell wild rice seed but that is a little spendy. Around the area where his cabin is there are a number of people that hand pick rice and proccessing plants that process that rice. I would check with them for seed. That way you would be getting seed that is from that area/watershed. Just take the handpicked rice and keep it wet and cool until you plant it in the fall or spring.