Comparison of Short-Duration and Long-Duration Rice Cultivars Cultivated in Various Planting Densities

Abstract

The selection of high-yielding, short-duration rice cultivars is essential for the double-rice cropping system. High hill density could be achieved with less labor under machine transplanted conditions. Therefore, dense planting is more practical for machine-transplanted rice. While few studies have been conducted to certify the feasibility of short-duration cultivar combined with dense planting in machine transplanted conditions. The current study was executed to determine the effects of dense planting on yield attributes and grain yield of short-duration cultivars under mechanically transplanted conditions. A field experiment comprises two treatments—i.e., the short-duration cultivar Lingliangyou104 cultivated at a high planting density (SDH) and the long-duration Taiyou390 cultivar cultivated at a low planting density (LDL)—were conducted in the 2018 and 2019 late seasons. The results showed that the SDH exhibited 17% and 19% higher panicle number in a unit, 26% and 24% higher spikelet filling, 8% and 8% higher grain weight, 21% and 11% higher harvest index, and consequently 12% and 4% higher grain yield and 13 and 15 days shortened growth duration compared to the LDL in the 2018 and 2019, respectively. The data revealed that the difference in grain yield between the SDH and LDL was mainly due to the higher harvest index and reasonable dry matter distribution of the SDH, which was conducive to improving yield components and increasing rice grain yield. As a result, short-duration rice cultivars combined with dense planting is a feasible strategy for improving the grain yield of mechanically transplanted late rice.