Do you enjoy taking care of plants? When cooking rice, do you keep or throw your rice water? Do you know that rice water can help plants grow well? Rice water is the extra water from boiling rice or when you do the rinsing of rice to get rid of unwanted debris. People’s practice is to wash the rice before it gets cooked. Washing the rice first allows the rice dust from the manufacturing process to dissolve into the water. The rice water contains starches and beneficial nutrients. The starches in rice water also provide the plant with carbohydrates that can be stored in the plant’s cell membrane until they can be used for energy while at the same time promoting helpful bacteria such as lactobacilli and mycorrhizae that can already be found to pre-exist in the soil, to thrive by providing a source of food.
Aside from just simply watering your plants, rice water can also be used as fertilizers to increase crop production and for the healthy growth of plants. It contains a sufficient amount of NPK or Nitrogen (N) Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) fertilizers which are the essential nutrients needed by all plants. The strained water after boiling rice is also beneficial to plants and it contains more nutrients than the rice water derived from only washing. This is because the heat from boiling causes more nutrients from the rice to leach into the water.
Here are the following benefits of using rice water on plants:
- Environmentally friendly source of fertilizer for plants
- Easy to obtain and readily available (from everyday cooking)
- Allows us to reuse waste material from the kitchen
- Save on the cost of purchasing fertilizer
- Prevents burns associated with inorganic fertilizer application
- Promotes healthy bacteria population within the soil
- Organic method of pest control
- Can be applied through top watering, bottom watering, or misting
- Boosts plant growth
- Increases fruit and crop production
So, for plantitos and plantitas out there, try this cost-effective way of watering your plants and let your plants savor its benefits aside from being environmentally-friendly and waste-free way to provide plants with the food they need to grow organically healthy. Afterall, rice water is not a waste at all.
NO I Zhalimar A. Jakaria-Patulada
References:
Using Rice Water on Plants: A Complete Guide
https://flourishingplants.com/using-rice-water-on-plants/
Rice Watering Garden
https://www.baliadvertiser.biz/rice-watering-garden/
