EFFECT OF SEEDLING AGE ON PERFORMANCE OF RICE GROWN IN AMAN SEASON

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the research farm of Crop Physiology and Ecology Department, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University (HSTU), Dinajpur during June 2011 to October 2011 to find out the effect of seedling age and rice varieties on tillering behavior, growth dynamics and yield characters of rice in aman season. The experiment was laid out in a two factors randomized complete block design with three replications taking four seedling age (direct seeding, 15,25 and 35 days old at transplanting) and two rice varieties (BINA -7 and BRRIdhan 49) as the factors. The result indicates tillering behavior and dry matter accumulation of rice were significantly influenced by the interaction effect of seedling age and varieties at different days after transplanting. Rice varieties when seeded directly or transplanted with 25 days old seedling provided greater number of tiller hill’ both at 50 days after transplanting and at harvest. They also provided greater number of panicles hill at harvest in these treatment combinations. Direct seeding of BINA-7 showed significant increase in dry matter production than transplanting of rice seedling of different age at 50 days after transplanting but BRRIdhan 49 did not show such increment in dry matter production in direct seeding. However BRRIdhan49 provided greater dry matter accumulation when transplanied with 35 and 25 days old seedling. BINA - 7 when seeded directly or transplanted with 25 days old seedling and BRRIdhan 49 transplanted with 25 days old seedling provided greater leaf area index. BINA7 when seeded directly in the main field and transplanted with 25 days old seedling provided higher grain yield whereas BRRIdhan 49 transplanted with 25 days old seedling provided greater grain yield than other seedling ages. BRRIdhan 49 took longer time to become harvest maturity stage than BINA-7 in all seedling age in general. Moreover, with the increment of seedling age at transplanting, duration of crop was found to be increased in both rice varieties. From the overall results it could be concluded that different rice varieties showed different growth pattern when seeded directly or transplanted with seedlings of different age particularly in tillering behavior, dry matter accumulation and grain yield.