The cultivation technique of the lomello rice
Lomello rice is grown on ploughed and well levelled soil, where sowing in underground rows is carried out with inter-row spaces of 15 cm for commercial production, and 30 cm for seed multiplication. This differentiation allows the use of a quantity of seeds which, for the first case, will be 150-160 kg/ha, allowing a good unit productivity, while for the second case, it will be 90-100 kg/ha, to facilitate an easier selection in purity of the variety from the purification operations carried by hand. The sowing period is done in the first fortnight of May to allow a first cleaning from weeds thanks to the false sowing technique. Fertilization is mainly based on organic fertilization through leguminous green manures (hairy vetch) and organic fertilizers based on manure. Weed control involves the least use of plant protection products, which will be as selective as possible to avoid delays in the vegetative cycle. The operations of selection to keep the purity of the variety are applied through a seed obtained from plants with morphologic features as the originals reported in the “Quaderno della Risicoltura” (Rice growing book) from 1953, the year in which the variety was first presented. Each season we select the cobs from the cultivation of the row-ears of the previous year with the original features; row-ears that are cultivated at a distance to avoid any possibility of pollution from other varieties pollens, also considering that the fertilization of rice is self-sufficient as the flower is hermaphrodite. The varietal multiplication parcel must not be repeated in the same plot for more than three years and must be renewed in another one, where a cultivation period of two consecutive years of a different cultivation than rice will have ended. The parcel purification will be conducted through three passages of hand cleaning during the months of June, August and September.
