Amateur and professional gardeners alike are always looking to optimise the growth of their plants to obtain high yields and tasty vegetables. Courgettes are no exception. A little-known but surprisingly effective trick is to put rice at the foot of the courgettes. Why is this recommended? This article explores the reasons behind this novel method, examining its benefits for the soil, the nutrients it provides and how it directly helps the plants.
Rice is much more than just a staple food in many crops. Used intelligently, it can serve as a useful soil improver for your vegetable garden, thanks in particular to its beneficial properties for the soil. When you place rice at the foot of courgettes, it slowly decomposes, releasing essential nutrients.
A gradual supply of nutrients
The rice decomposes gradually, ensuring a steady, continuous release of nutrients. This slowness avoids sudden spikes in fertilisation, which could upset the soil’s nutrient balance and benefit plants such as courgettes enormously. The calcium contained in rice, for example, plays a fundamental role in the development of leaves and fruit by strengthening the cell structure.
Improving soil texture
Rice grains act as an organic amendment, improving soil texture. They aerate compacted soil, facilitating water infiltration and root access to these vital elements. Well-drained soil also helps prevent problems such as root rot, while ensuring good water retention.
Using rice as a source of fertiliser
Using rice as a fertiliser may seem surprising at first, but it is based on well-established principles of sustainable agriculture and natural resource management.
Comparative advantages over chemical fertilisers
Unlike chemical fertilisers, rice poses no risk of polluting water tables or causing toxicity to plants. It promotes environmentally-friendly agriculture by minimising the carbon footprint and creating a virtuous circle of resource recycling.
Supporting soil biodiversity
Decomposing rice not only enriches the soil in terms of nutrients, but also encourages the proliferation of beneficial micro-organisms. These microbes break down the organic matter into elements that can be assimilated by the courgette roots, stimulating their growth. What’s more, soil rich in living organisms is less likely to develop disease, offering your plants natural protection.
Optimising watering with rice
One of the major challenges in gardening is to maintain a good level of humidity without causing water stagnation, which is often harmful to plants. The integration of rice around the courgette plants plays a crucial role in irrigation management.
Water retention and distribution
Rice grains can absorb several times their weight in water, acting as natural mini reservoirs. When they are placed at the foot of the courgettes, they gradually release the stored water, ensuring that the roots are constantly and evenly hydrated.
Avoiding excess humidity
By absorbing excess water, rice also helps to prevent episodes of saturation, which can lead to adverse conditions such as root rot. This optimum moisture management helps to create ideal conditions for courgette growth.
Stimulate growth and improve yield
Putting rice at the foot of courgettes not only improves growing conditions, it also has a direct effect on the growth and yield of the courgette plants.
Increased plant biomass
Thanks to the multiple nutrient inputs and improved water management, courgettes grown with rice benefit from a boost to their metabolism. As a result, they produce more leaf biomass, which is essential for photosynthesis and the production of the energy reserves needed to form fruit.
Greater resistance to environmental stress
Well-nourished, well-irrigated soil thanks to rice gives courgettes greater resilience to climatic variations, pathogen attacks and periods of drought. This translates into significantly higher yields and consistent production throughout the growing season.
Specific mechanisms involved in the use of rice
To fully understand the benefits of this practice, it is essential to look at the precise biological and chemical mechanisms involved.
Release of amino acids
As rice decomposes, it releases amino acids into the soil. These organic compounds play a major role in the early stages of growth by acting as precursors. Plants use these amino acids to synthesise critical enzymes and other molecules required for their development.
Interaction between rice and micro-organisms
The biodegradations caused by the presence of rice not only benefit the direct nutrient enrichment of the soil, but also stimulate the activity of indigenous micro-organisms. This symbiosis significantly improves the overall health of the courgette root system through better absorption of water and nutrients, thereby optimising survival rates and productivity.
