Screening of rice cultures and mitigation of iron deficiency in aerobic rice

Abstract

The field experiment was conducted in Water management research block, Department of Agronomy, Agricultural college and Research Institute, Madurai during Rabi’ 2019 to screen rice cultures and to mitigate the iron deficiency in aerobic rice system. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications. The main plot comprised of rice culture namely Apo-1 (M1), CBMAS 14065 (M2) and CBMAS 14110 (M3) and the sub plot comprised of foliar spraying of 0.5% Fe SO4 on 25 & 45 DAS (S1), foliar spraying of 0.5% Fe SO4 on 45 & 65 DAS (S2), foliar spraying of 1% Fe SO4 on 25 & 45 DAS (S3), foliar spraying of 1% Fe SO4 on 45 & 65 DAS (S4), soil application of iron chelates @ 2 kg ha-1(S5) and control (S6 -water spray). The rice culture CBMAS 14110 responded well to the foliar application of FeSO4 at 1% on 45 and 65 DAS (M3S4) as it recorded higher DMP (14260kg/ha). It also registered significantly higher number of panicles (247/m2), filled grains (261/panicle), grain yield (5878 kg/ha) and straw yield (8449 kg/ha). The maximum plant height (126.8 cm) was recorded in Apo-1 which received 1% Fe SO4 foliar spray on 45 and 65 DAS (M1S4).