How to Plant Rice in the Philippines: Palay the Traditional Way, Step by Step

30 days before transplanting: Soak the field and fix the dikes

Let water into the paddy, or wait for the rains, until the soil softens. Patch the dikes (pilapil) and clean the canals so the field can hold water evenly.

25 days before transplanting: First plowing

Plow the soaked field with a carabao or a hand tractor and turn the stubble and weeds under. Keep water on the field so the stubble rots for about two weeks.

14 days before transplanting: Harrow the field

Harrow once or twice, about a week apart, to break the clods and bury the weeds that came up after plowing.

2 days before transplanting: Final harrowing and leveling

Harrow a last time and drag a wooden plank over the mud so the water stands at the same depth everywhere. High spots grow weeds and low spots drown young seedlings.

23 days before transplanting: Soak and sprout the seed

Soak the seed in clean water for about a day and skim off the grains that float. Drain it and keep it in a damp sack in the shade for one to two days until short white sprouts appear. Tip: Sprouts no longer than a grain are easier to sow and do not break.

1. Float off the empty grainsPour the seed into a drum or a big basin of clean water and stir it by hand. The empty and half filled grains (tulyapis) rise to the top, so skim them off and keep only the heavy seed that sank. Wash that seed once.
2. Soak it for a day24 hoursLeave the good seed under water for about a day, either in a sack dipped in a flowing canal or in a container. In a container, pour off the old water and fill it fresh every 12 hours so the seed does not sour. Tip: In cool weather the seed drinks slowly and may need up to two days of soaking.
3. Rinse and drainWash the soaked seed again, then put it in sacks filled only halfway so it has room to swell and breathe. Stand the sacks to one side until the extra water stops dripping.
4. Keep it warm in the sack (pagkukulob)about 24 hours, until it sproutsLay the sacks on a pallet or planks in the shade, so air moves under them, and cover them with rice straw, old sacks or plastic to hold the warmth. Keep the seed damp the whole time.
5. Turn the sacks and feel the heatevery 12 hoursAfter about 12 hours, turn the sacks over so the warmth spreads and all the seed sprouts together. Push a hand into the seed: if it feels hot rather than warm, open the cover and let it cool a little before covering it again. Tip: Warm like the body, about 30 degrees, is right. Seed that gets too hot in the sack dies.
6. Check the sprouts and cool the seedThe seed is ready when most grains show a short white tip at one end. Open the sacks and let the seed cool before you carry it to the seedbed.

21 days before transplanting: Sow the seedbed (punlaan)

Make raised mud beds about a meter wide in one corner of the field and scatter the sprouted seed evenly over them. Keep the beds moist at first, then let in shallow water as the seedlings grow.

1. Pick the seedbed spotChoose a fertile corner that is easy to reach, close to the water source and easy to drain, where no disease showed last season. Keep it away from lamps at night, which pull in stem borers and planthoppers, and away from bushes where rats hide.
2. Size it for the fieldabout a week before sowingFor one hectare, set aside about 400 square meters of seedbed and start getting it ready about a week before sowing.
3. Raise and level the bedsPuddle the soil well and form beds 1 to 1.5 meters wide and about 4 to 5 cm high, as long as the paddy allows. Leave about 30 cm between beds as a small canal for draining. Make the tops flat so water spreads evenly. Tip: Working about four bags of compost or decomposed manure into the beds loosens the soil, so the seedlings pull out easily later.
4. Sow the sprouted seedScatter about a handful of sprouted seed on each square meter, as evenly as you can. In the dry season sow late in the afternoon, when the sun cannot burn the sprouts. In the rainy season keep water about half a thumb deep on the beds as you sow so rain does not wash the seed together.
5. Raise the water as they grow3 to 5 days, then until pullingHold the water at about half a thumb deep for the first three to five days, then raise it slowly to about a thumb deep and keep it there until the seedlings are pulled.
6. Feed the seedbed once7 to 10 days after sowingAbout 7 to 10 days after sowing, scatter about 5 kg of urea (46 0 0) or 10 kg of ammonium sulfate (21 0 0) over the 400 square meters.
7. Guard the bedsPut rat baits or traps around the beds and stretch strings or nets against birds. Walk the beds every few days and act early on pests or disease.

Transplanting day: Pull the seedlings and transplant

Pull the seedlings at about 20 to 25 days old, wash off the mud and tie them in bundles. Push 3 to 5 seedlings into each hill, about 2 to 3 cm deep, in shallow water. Some farmers follow a marked string for straight rows, others plant by eye.

1. Keep the bed wet and softKeep water on the seedbed up to pulling day. Seedlings pulled from hard, dry mud lose many of their roots.
2. Pull a few at a timethe day before or the same dayPull on the day of transplanting or the day before. Take two or three seedlings between the thumb and the first finger, close to the roots, press down a little, then draw them gently toward you.
3. Wash and bundleSwish the roots in the water to shake off the mud and tie the seedlings in bundles small enough to hold in one hand, with a twist of straw.
4. Drop the bundles along the fieldCarry the bundles out and drop them at intervals across the paddy so each planter has seedlings within reach. Plant them the same day, because seedlings left lying around recover slowly or die.
5. Plant shallow, a few to a hillHold the seedlings by the base and press the roots into the mud with the thumb and two fingers, only 2 to 3 cm deep. Deep planting slows the new tillers. Planting on a string at about 20 by 20 cm in the wet season, or 20 by 15 cm in the dry season, gives even rows.

Day 7: Fill the missing hills

About a week after planting, walk the field and fill gaps with spare seedlings from the seedbed before the hills around them get ahead.

Day 10: First fertilizer

Broadcast complete fertilizer (14 14 14) or 16 20 0 by hand while the water is shallow. Many farmers add a little urea at this time too.

Day 20: First weeding

Pull the weeds between the hills by hand or push a rotary weeder along the rows and press the weeds into the mud. Many farmers now spray a weed killer in the first week instead.

Day 25: Watch for snails, rats and insects

Pick golden apple snails and crush their pink egg clusters in the first weeks. Check the field each week for stem borers, leaf folders, planthoppers and rat damage, and act when the damage is spreading.

Day 32: Urea when the panicle starts to form

When the young panicle begins forming inside the stem, about two months before harvest, topdress urea (46 0 0), often with potash (0 0 60). This feeding gives longer, fuller panicles.

Day 35: Clean out the off types in the seed patch

If you will keep your own seed, choose the best stand in the field, with good water and no disease, and walk it to pull out every plant that does not look like the rest. Do it again at flowering and once more before harvest.

1. Mark the seed patchPick a strip with even growth, steady water and no sign of disease or pests, away from a neighbor's different variety. Mark its corners with sticks.
2. Look for the plants that do not matchPull out plants that are clearly taller or shorter than the rest, with a leaf or stem of another color, or a flag leaf that points another way from the crowd.
3. Check again at floweringPull the plants that flower much earlier or later than the others, and any that look sick or are badly hurt by insects.
4. Check once more before harvestRemove panicles whose grains have another shape or color, or grains with awns (sungot) where the rest have none.

Day 38: Second weeding

Pull the weeds that came back before the rice closes its canopy.

Day 60: Keep water through flowering

Keep about 3 to 5 cm of water from the booting stage until the grains fill. A dry field at flowering gives many empty grains.

Day 82: Drain the field

Drain the paddy about two weeks before harvest so the soil firms up for cutting and the grains ripen evenly.

Day 95: Cut and thresh

Harvest when most grains on the panicle have turned golden, about a month after flowering. Cut with a sickle (karit) or a combine and thresh the same day or the next, without leaving cut palay piled wet in the field.

Day 96: Dry and store the grain

Spread the grain thinly on a concrete floor, nets or mats in the sun and turn it often for two to three days, until it is dry enough to keep, about 14 percent moisture. Store it in clean sacks raised off the floor.

1. Spread it thinSpread the threshed palay on mats, nets, canvas or a concrete floor in a layer only about two to four centimeters deep. A thick layer dries on top and stays wet below.
2. Turn it oftenevery 30 minutesRake or turn the grain about every half hour through the day so it dries evenly. On a very hot noon, pile and cover it for a while so the grain does not crack.
3. Cover it fast when rain comesKeep a canvas or sacks at hand and cover the grain the moment rain starts. Grain that gets wet again after drying cracks and breaks at the mill. Keep chickens and animals off the drying floor.
4. Check that it is dryMany farmers bite a grain: dry palay snaps cleanly instead of bending. A moisture meter is surer. Grain for eating or selling keeps at about 14 percent moisture or less.
5. Store it off the floorFill clean sacks and stack them on pallets in a swept, dry storeroom, away from the walls. Set traps or keep a cat for rats and look the sacks over every week for weevils.

Day 96: Keep seed for the next season

Cut the seed patch apart from the rest of the crop and handle that palay with extra care: quick threshing, slow even drying, cleaning, and a dry, safe place to wait for the next planting.

1. Cut the seed patch on timeHarvest the marked strip when about 85 to 90 percent of the grains on the panicles have turned the color of straw. Keep it apart from the eating palay at every step.
2. Thresh it soonwithin 24 hoursThresh the seed palay within a day of cutting, on a clean mat or canvas, so it does not heat up in a wet pile.
3. Dry it on a clean floorSpread it thinly on a clean mat, net or floor away from the eating palay and turn it often. Seed is dried a little further than grain, to about 12 to 14 percent moisture.
4. Winnow out the light seedPour the seed slowly from about shoulder height in a steady breeze or in front of a fan. The heavy, full seed falls near you while chaff, weed seed and light grains blow away. Do it twice if needed.
5. Bag, label and storeFill clean sacks or, better, sealed containers, and write the variety and the harvest date on each. Keep them in a cool, dry, shaded place raised off the floor, safe from rats, and look them over every week for insects. Tip: Seed kept dry and sealed stays good for about a year. In an open sack it soaks up the damp air and slowly loses its life.

21 days before sowing: Soak the field and plow

Flood or soak the field, fix the dikes, and plow with a carabao or a hand tractor to bury the stubble. Keep water on so the stubble rots.

10 days before sowing: Harrow

Harrow once or twice to break clods and kill the weeds that sprouted after plowing.

2 days before sowing: Soak and sprout the seed

Soak the seed for about a day, skim off the floaters, then keep it in a damp sack for about a day until the tips just crack open. Short sprouts do not tangle or break when thrown.

1. Float off the empty grainsPour the seed into a drum or a big basin of clean water and stir it by hand. The empty and half filled grains (tulyapis) rise to the top, so skim them off and keep only the heavy seed that sank. Wash that seed once.
2. Soak it12 to 24 hoursLeave the good seed under water for 12 to 24 hours, in a flowing canal or in a container. In a container, change the water every 12 hours. Tip: In cool weather it may need longer before the tips start to swell.
3. Drain and rest it in the shadeabout a dayDrain the seed and keep it in half filled sacks in a shaded place where air moves around them. Turn the sacks once and open them if they feel hot.
4. Stop at the first white tipFor throwing on mud, the seed is ready as soon as the tips crack open and a tiny white point shows. Sow before the roots grow longer than about half a centimeter, or they tangle in the hand and break.

1 day before sowing: Level well and cut drainage canals

Harrow a last time and level the field very carefully, since sown seed in a low spot drowns. Dig small canals around and across the field so water can be drained off after sowing.

Sowing day: Broadcast the sprouted seed

Drain the field until only soft wet mud is left, with no standing water. Walk in strips and scatter the sprouted seed evenly by hand, working the field twice in opposite directions so no patch is missed. Tip: Many farmers throw 100 to 150 kg a hectare to make up for seed lost to birds and snails, far more than the crop needs.

1. Drain to soft mud1 to 2 daysDrain the field until only soft, wet mud is left. If the water is muddy, wait a day or two for the mud to settle before you sow, so the seed is not buried.
2. Split the seed in twoWeigh the seed for the field and split it into two equal lots, one for each pass. Mark strips across the field with sticks or rice straw so you know where you have walked.
3. Throw in two crossing passesWalk the first lot along the strips, throwing in wide, even swings. Walk the second lot across the first, so a patch missed in one pass is caught in the other.
4. Guard the seedKeep birds away for the first days and pick snails from the canals. If some patches stay bare after about two weeks, sow them again.

Day 2: Keep the mud wet but not flooded

For about the first week keep the soil moist without standing water so the seeds can root. Drain at once after heavy rain.

Day 5: Early weed control

Weeds come up with the rice because there is no water to hold them back. Many farmers spray a weed killer in the first week while the soil is moist, then hand pull what escapes.

Day 10: Let in water slowly

When the seedlings have about three leaves, let in a thin layer of water and raise it to 3 to 5 cm as they grow. Standing water also keeps many weeds down.

Day 14: First fertilizer

Broadcast complete fertilizer (14 14 14) or 16 20 0 once the seedlings are standing well.

Day 18: Thin crowded spots and fill gaps

Pull clumps from crowded spots and push them into bare patches so the stand is even.

Day 25: Hand weeding

Pull the weeds by hand, especially grassy weeds that look like rice.

Day 28: Urea at tillering

Topdress urea (46 0 0) while the plants are tillering.

Day 35: Watch for snails, rats and insects

Check the field each week for golden apple snails, stem borers, leaf folders, planthoppers and rats, and act when the damage is spreading.

Day 45: Clean out the off types in the seed patch

If you will keep your own seed, choose the best stand in the field, with good water and no disease, and walk it to pull out every plant that does not look like the rest. Do it again at flowering and once more before harvest.

1. Mark the seed patchPick a strip with even growth, steady water and no sign of disease or pests, away from a neighbor's different variety. Mark its corners with sticks.
2. Look for the plants that do not matchPull out plants that are clearly taller or shorter than the rest, with a leaf or stem of another color, or a flag leaf that points another way from the crowd.
3. Check again at floweringPull the plants that flower much earlier or later than the others, and any that look sick or are badly hurt by insects.
4. Check once more before harvestRemove panicles whose grains have another shape or color, or grains with awns (sungot) where the rest have none.

Day 48: Urea when the panicle starts to form

Give the last urea, often with potash (0 0 60), as the young panicle starts forming inside the stem, about two months before harvest.

Day 95: Drain the field

Drain the paddy about two weeks before harvest.

Day 110: Cut and thresh

Harvest when most grains are golden, about a month after flowering. Broadcast rice is denser and falls over more easily, so cut on time.

Day 111: Dry and store the grain

Thresh within a day, then sun dry in thin layers, turning often, until the grain is dry enough to keep, about 14 percent moisture.

1. Spread it thinSpread the threshed palay on mats, nets, canvas or a concrete floor in a layer only about two to four centimeters deep. A thick layer dries on top and stays wet below.
2. Turn it oftenevery 30 minutesRake or turn the grain about every half hour through the day so it dries evenly. On a very hot noon, pile and cover it for a while so the grain does not crack.
3. Cover it fast when rain comesKeep a canvas or sacks at hand and cover the grain the moment rain starts. Grain that gets wet again after drying cracks and breaks at the mill. Keep chickens and animals off the drying floor.
4. Check that it is dryMany farmers bite a grain: dry palay snaps cleanly instead of bending. A moisture meter is surer. Grain for eating or selling keeps at about 14 percent moisture or less.
5. Store it off the floorFill clean sacks and stack them on pallets in a swept, dry storeroom, away from the walls. Set traps or keep a cat for rats and look the sacks over every week for weevils.

Day 111: Keep seed for the next season

Cut the seed patch apart from the rest of the crop and handle that palay with extra care: quick threshing, slow even drying, cleaning, and a dry, safe place to wait for the next planting.

1. Cut the seed patch on timeHarvest the marked strip when about 85 to 90 percent of the grains on the panicles have turned the color of straw. Keep it apart from the eating palay at every step.
2. Thresh it soonwithin 24 hoursThresh the seed palay within a day of cutting, on a clean mat or canvas, so it does not heat up in a wet pile.
3. Dry it on a clean floorSpread it thinly on a clean mat, net or floor away from the eating palay and turn it often. Seed is dried a little further than grain, to about 12 to 14 percent moisture.
4. Winnow out the light seedPour the seed slowly from about shoulder height in a steady breeze or in front of a fan. The heavy, full seed falls near you while chaff, weed seed and light grains blow away. Do it twice if needed.
5. Bag, label and storeFill clean sacks or, better, sealed containers, and write the variety and the harvest date on each. Keep them in a cool, dry, shaded place raised off the floor, safe from rats, and look them over every week for insects. Tip: Seed kept dry and sealed stays good for about a year. In an open sack it soaks up the damp air and slowly loses its life.

30 days before sowing: Plow the dry field

At the end of the dry season, once a light rain softens the topsoil, plow the field dry with a carabao or a tractor.

14 days before sowing: Harrow to a fine seedbed

Harrow two or three times to break the clods and kill the weeds that came up. A fine, even seedbed helps the seeds come up together.

Sowing day: Sow dry seed before the rains settle in

Scatter dry, unsoaked seed by hand and harrow lightly to cover it, or drop it in shallow furrows about 20 to 25 cm apart and cover. On upland fields farmers poke holes with a pointed stick, drop a few seeds in each and close the hole with the foot.

1. Use dry, clean seedClean the seed of chaff and weed seed and keep it dry. Seed for dry soil is never soaked, because sprouted seed dies if the rain is late.
2. Broadcasting on a flat fieldScatter the seed evenly by hand, or drop it in shallow furrows made by passing a furrower over the field, then drag a spike tooth harrow over it to cover the seed.
3. Dibbling on slopesOn hillsides, where plowing is hard, poke shallow holes in rows with a long wooden or bamboo pole, often with a metal tip. Drop a few seeds in each hole and push the soil back with the foot.

Day 3: Guard the seed

Watch for birds, ants and rats feeding on the seed before the rains come and the seedlings get going.

Day 12: Early weeding

With no water on the field, weeds sprout with the rice. Hand pull or hoe them between the rows early, or spray a weed killer while they are small.

Day 14: First fertilizer

Spread complete fertilizer (14 14 14) or 16 20 0 when the soil is moist after rain.

Day 25: Hold the rainwater

Once the rains fill the paddies, close the dike openings and keep a shallow layer of water on the field, which slows the weeds.

Day 30: Second weeding

Pull or hoe the weeds that came back before the rice closes its canopy.

Day 32: Urea at tillering

Topdress urea (46 0 0) on wet soil while the plants are tillering.

Day 40: Watch for pests

Check each week for stem borers, leaf folders, planthoppers and rats, and act when the damage is spreading.

Day 45: Clean out the off types in the seed patch

If you will keep your own seed, choose the best stand in the field, with good water and no disease, and walk it to pull out every plant that does not look like the rest. Do it again at flowering and once more before harvest.

1. Mark the seed patchPick a strip with even growth, steady water and no sign of disease or pests, away from a neighbor's different variety. Mark its corners with sticks.
2. Look for the plants that do not matchPull out plants that are clearly taller or shorter than the rest, with a leaf or stem of another color, or a flag leaf that points another way from the crowd.
3. Check again at floweringPull the plants that flower much earlier or later than the others, and any that look sick or are badly hurt by insects.
4. Check once more before harvestRemove panicles whose grains have another shape or color, or grains with awns (sungot) where the rest have none.

Day 50: Urea when the panicle starts to form

Give the last urea, often with potash (0 0 60), as the young panicle starts forming, about two months before harvest.

Day 100: Drain the field

Drain any standing water about two weeks before harvest.

Day 115: Cut and thresh

Harvest when most grains are golden, about a month after flowering. Old upland varieties are often longer and are cut panicle by panicle with a small blade.

Day 116: Dry and store the grain

Thresh and sun dry in thin layers until the grain is dry enough to keep, about 14 percent moisture.

1. Spread it thinSpread the threshed palay on mats, nets, canvas or a concrete floor in a layer only about two to four centimeters deep. A thick layer dries on top and stays wet below.
2. Turn it oftenevery 30 minutesRake or turn the grain about every half hour through the day so it dries evenly. On a very hot noon, pile and cover it for a while so the grain does not crack.
3. Cover it fast when rain comesKeep a canvas or sacks at hand and cover the grain the moment rain starts. Grain that gets wet again after drying cracks and breaks at the mill. Keep chickens and animals off the drying floor.
4. Check that it is dryMany farmers bite a grain: dry palay snaps cleanly instead of bending. A moisture meter is surer. Grain for eating or selling keeps at about 14 percent moisture or less.
5. Store it off the floorFill clean sacks and stack them on pallets in a swept, dry storeroom, away from the walls. Set traps or keep a cat for rats and look the sacks over every week for weevils.

Day 116: Keep seed for the next season

Cut the seed patch apart from the rest of the crop and handle that palay with extra care: quick threshing, slow even drying, cleaning, and a dry, safe place to wait for the next planting.

1. Cut the seed patch on timeHarvest the marked strip when about 85 to 90 percent of the grains on the panicles have turned the color of straw. Keep it apart from the eating palay at every step.
2. Thresh it soonwithin 24 hoursThresh the seed palay within a day of cutting, on a clean mat or canvas, so it does not heat up in a wet pile.
3. Dry it on a clean floorSpread it thinly on a clean mat, net or floor away from the eating palay and turn it often. Seed is dried a little further than grain, to about 12 to 14 percent moisture.
4. Winnow out the light seedPour the seed slowly from about shoulder height in a steady breeze or in front of a fan. The heavy, full seed falls near you while chaff, weed seed and light grains blow away. Do it twice if needed.
5. Bag, label and storeFill clean sacks or, better, sealed containers, and write the variety and the harvest date on each. Keep them in a cool, dry, shaded place raised off the floor, safe from rats, and look them over every week for insects. Tip: Seed kept dry and sealed stays good for about a year. In an open sack it soaks up the damp air and slowly loses its life.