UC Rice Blog

Reprint from Rice Farming, March 2026Early season weed control is vital to keeping yield potential high in California rice. Most of our yield potential is lost to weed competition in the first 30 days. The vast majority of that yield loss is due to watergrass species (Echinochloa spp.) including…

This post is somewhat a repeat of last year’s. However, while last year the rice price was low, this year we have both low rice prices and high fertilizer costs. Therefore, there is even more reason to carefully manage your fertilizer input costs. Below are some suggestions on how you can reduce your costs…

We have had a lot of rain this past April. I wanted to look at this year relative to previous years. I maintain an on-going database from three CIMIS stations in the Sacramento Valley Rice growing region (Davis, Colusa/Williams and Durham/Biggs). I develop an index where I take the average values from these…

Last year during the 2025 Winter Grower Meetings, we mentioned nutria as an emerging invasive pest capable of harming rice fields, especially in the Delta region. After these meetings, we received several anecdotal confirmations of sightings of nutria and nutria burrows around the Stockton area and further…

Stem rot is a common rice pathogen present in all fields. The pathogen produces resting structures called sclerotia that survive in the soil after harvest. The sclerotia germinate in the spring and the pathogen infects tillers at the water level approximately when plants reach panicle initiation (45 to 50…