Performance of Lowland Rice (Oryza sativa L) as Affected by Transplanting Age and Plant Spacing in Abakaliki, Nigeria

Abstract

The field experiment was conducted at the Rresearch Field of the Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources Management Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki during 2010 and 2011 farming seasons, to investigate the effect of transplanting age and plant spacing on the growth and yield of lowland rice (Oryza sativa L). The treatments were four transplanting ages (2, 4, 6 and 8 week’s old plants) and three levels of plant spacing (20cm x 20cm, 30cm x 30cm and 40cm x 40cm). The treatments were laid as a 4 x 3 factorial experiment in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) and were replicated four times.  The results revealed that four week’s old plant produced the tallest plants, more number of tillers,  leaf area index, number of panicles, longest of panicles and paddy yield while the least number of leaves, number of tillers, days to 50% heading, number of panicles, 1000 grain weight and paddy yield were recorded at eight weeks old plant. However, plant spacing of 40cm x 40cm produced highest number of tillers, number of leaves, days to 50% heading and 1000 grain weight. Whereas, plant spacing of 30cm x 30cm recorded longest panicle, more number of panicle and paddy yield. This result showed that four weeks old plant with 30cm x 30cm demonstrated the highest paddy yield and can be recommended for rice production in the study area.

Key words: Transplanting age, plant spacing, Rice, growth and yield.