Effect of Spacing and Number of Seedling Hill-1 on Grain Yield and other Agronomic Traits of Hybrid Rice (U.S. 312) on Late Transplantation

Abstract

The experiment was carried out at the Agronomy Field of Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science (IAAS), Lamjung during kharif season of 2017 to find out the effect of spacing and number of seedlings hill-1 on the performance of old aged seedling of Hybrid rice (U.S. 312). The land was moderately fertile with clay loam soil type with pH 5.7. Two factors were used a) Spacing of transplanting b) Seedling number hill-1. Spacing of transplanting used was 15cm x 15cm (S1), 15 cm x 20 cm (S2), 20cm x 20cm (S3) and seedling number per hill were single seedling per hill, double seedling hill-1 and triple seedling hill-1. The experiment was laid in two factorial randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Effect of Spacing and seedlings number hill-1 was significant for most of the parameters except plant height, panicle length, straw yield and harvest index. Results revealed that maximum grain yield (3.40 t/ha) with mean harvest index 0.31 was found in 20cm x 20cm spacing. Similar results were obtained in case of effective tillers (8.55), filled grain/ panicle (89.42), Spikelet fertility (81.29%) and panicle length (26.04), where 20cm x 20cm spacing recorded the higher value compared to others. In case of Seedling number hill-1, Grain yield was found similar in all seedling number hill-1 but other parameters like effective tillers (9.12), filled grain/ panicle (87.57), Spikelet fertility (79.01%) and panicle length (26.65) were found statistically superior in triple seedling hill-1. The interaction between spacing and seedling numbers/ hill was found non-significant for all the parameters used in the research. 20cm x 20cm spacing with triple seedlings/hill was found superior in majority of parameters used. However, the results need to be confirmed for different aged seedlings used by farmers in Nepal.