It wasn't very difficult. There are very few varieties available in small amounts. Bluebonnet was the only one advertised as upland, non-paddy, rice. This is what Baker Creek says about it:
"A traditional rice grown by native Mayan people who call it "Blue Bonnet". Collected by Mennonite farmers who have a community near Belmopan, it was given to them by their Mayan neighbors in the town of Armenia, Belize. This is an upland rice variety as it does not need to be flooded and can be grown in regular garden soil. Very productive plants. Here are the "growing instructions" we have for this seed:
Warm weather - plant after last frost. Short season, start indoors about the same time you would tomatoes, but still may not have much luck.
Needs rich soil (good Nitrogen)
plant 5 to 6 inches apart both ways if planting in a bed, or 2 to 3 inches apart with 1 to 2 foot between if planting in rows.
Need to keep weeds down and keep the soil moist.
Growers in TN planted in mid May and harvested in Mid September."

Christine

I tried blue bonnet two summers ago here in z7MA and it grew well but didn't make it to mature grain before frost, not too surprisingly. I have a place in central fla but the very poor excessively drained sand there would never support rice.

Two fourteen foot rows, three feet apart

Approximately 120 seeds

Four months to harvest

One week drying

8.8 pounds of rice produced (unhulled)!

I was expecting a pound or two!

Silvia

Let us know how you cooked it. :)

Christine

I now have plenty of seed to share with anyone interested in trying to grow rice. I found it was very easy. For Central Florida, I think the best time to plant would be at the onset of the rainy season - end of June or beginning of July. I planted a month late and had to irrigate for a month after the rainy season ended. All in all, it worked out well.

Tom

Yes, I was wondering how you planned to do that. Please keep updating this thread.

It seems like I saw mention of heating the rice as part of the dehulling - the reason you can't plant brown rice from the store. That was before planting. Of course, now that I have rice I can find no mention of that part of dehulling.

This is about all I know about milling:

If I ever change locations in fla I'll be looking for a place with some poorly drained soil on it.

pnbrown, a couple times I drenched the plants with Miracle Grow when the plants were small, maybe six or seven inches tall. At about 3 weeks I side dressed the rows with two bags of rabbit pellets. That was all. One bag of rabbit pellets was fresh and dry, while the other had gotten wet and was partially composted. The plants that got the fresh pellets were a few inches taller at maturity, but they seemed to have less rice. I don't think you necessarily need poorly drained soil for upland rice, but it can't hurt. Aside from containers, it is all I have.