The history of transplanting rice seedlings
According to archaeological records, rice was planted in China as early as 5,000 years ago. Transplanting, that is, transplanting, began in the Han Dynasty, and the poem Guangling Biezheng Chu Shi written by Gao Shi in the Tang Dynasty was the earliest poem describing transplanting.
Manual transplantation is still popular.
After thousands of years, people have been planting rice by hand. With the progress of the times and the development of agricultural technology, the way of rice transplanting is also changing. First of all, seedling throwing technology appeared, which was particularly popular for a period of time because of its labor saving, and almost replaced manual transplanting. However, throwing seedlings has many disadvantages, which requires manual secondary transplanting, which is time-consuming and laborious, and also requires fertilization. Later, there was mechanical transplanting. Mechanical transplanting is faster, but its disadvantages are obvious. Seedling raising needs a professional assembly line, which is costly, time-consuming and wastes seedlings. Those small plots and hilly areas are not suitable for machinery, and mechanical transplanting is limited to contiguous large-scale planting. So most of us here still use artificial transplantation.
Second, the time of transplanting rice seedlings
In the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, there are generally early rice, middle rice and late rice, and there is also a time limit for transplanting rice. To use an agricultural proverb, no early rice will be planted in May 1 day, that is, rice transplanting will end from the end of April to May 1 day; Mid-season rice will not be transplanted during the Dragon Boat Festival, which means that mid-season rice will start transplanting at the end of May and end in early June. Late rice will not be transplanted in August 1 day, that is, it will be transplanted at the end of July, and all rice will be transplanted in August 1 day. Of course, in practice, it is often not so accurate. The transplanting time can be extended by several days, but the early rice must be transplanted in mid-May, the middle rice in mid-June and the late rice in early August. If it is further delayed, it will affect growth and reduce production.
Three artificial transplantation techniques
In our Jingzhou area, the usual farm work is dominated by men, and in the transplanting season, women become the main force. Transplanting is definitely a ritual farm work for women. They must take it seriously and make preparations in advance. The main thing is to prepare "punching" tools, two equal-length bamboo sticks (about 1.2 meters), nylon thread about 500 meters, and wooden shafts. When transplanting rice, if it is a group of people, it is necessary to "strike" first. Measure one end of the paddy field with a bamboo stick, pull the rope to the other end, straighten the rope after measuring with another bamboo stick, then insert a row of seedlings along it, leave a blank compartment, and go down in turn until the whole blank paddy field is divided into rows of compartments for seedlings. If it is operated by a single person, you don't need this process. You can insert bamboo sticks directly and pull the line to transplant rice seedlings.