Effect of Crop Establishment Methods on Growth Indices and Flowering of Lowland Rice (Oryza sativa L.)
Prerna Jaiswal *
RABL College of Agriculture and Research Station, Chhuikhadan, India.
Sweety Anant
Agriculture Department, Government of Chhattisgarh, Raipur, India.
Monika Tikariha
Agriculture Department, Government of Chhattisgarh, Raipur, India.
Ravindra Kumar
College of Agriculture and Research Station, Boirdadar, Raigarh, India.
Ramnath
College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandary, Anjora, Durg, India.
Nagendra Verma
Agriculture Department, Government of Chhattisgarh, Raipur, India.
Jharna Chaturvedani
RABL College of Forsetry and Research Station, Sankara, Patan, India.
Tamin
RABL College of Agriculture and Research Station, Chhuikhadan, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
During the summer of 2019, a field trial at the Instructional cum Research Farm, S.G. College of Agriculture and Research Station, Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh, India, examined how different establishment practices affected the growth and phenological development of rice. Among the methods compared, transplanting seedlings aged 20 days gave the most favourable overall growth response. It produced the highest leaf area index (LAI), crop growth rate (CGR), relative growth rate (RGR) during the first two observation intervals, and internodal length (8.81 cm). LAI rose between sowing and 60 days after sowing (DAS), before falling at 90 DAS. RGR similarly increased from 0–30 to 30–60 DAS and then decreased over 60–90 DAS, whereas CGR increased across the recorded intervals. With 20-day-old transplanted seedlings, RGR was 0.024, 0.027 and 0.017 g g−1 day−1 for 0–30, 30–60 and 60–90 DAS, respectively. This treatment also reached flower initiation earliest (67 days), followed by 50% flowering at 71 days. By comparison, broadcasting sprouted seeds delayed these stages to 77 and 88 days, respectively. The variation in time to 50% flowering was not statistically significant among treatments. Under the agro-climatic conditions investigated, transplanting 20-day-old rice seedlings was therefore associated with improved vegetative growth and earlier initiation of reproductive development.
Keywords: Crop establishment methods, leaf area index, crop growth rate, relative growth rate