Performance of Some Hybrid Rice Combinations Under Different Irrigation Intervals and Sowing Dates

Abstract

Two field experiments were conducted at the farm of Sakha Agricultural Research Station – Sakha, Kafr- El sheikh governorate, Egypt during 2014 and 2015 seasons to study the performance of some hybrid rice combinations to different dates of sowing and various irrigation intervals. Three hybrid rice combinations, namely; SK-2034H (H1), SK-2046H (H2) and SK-2151H (H3) were used under three dates of sowing (May, 1, May, 15 and May, 30) with three irrigation intervals i.e. every 4 days, every 8 days and every 12 days. A split-split plot design with four replications was used. The three dates of sowing were allocated in the main plots and the three irrigation intervals were devoted in sub-plots, while sub- sub were received the three varieties. The studied characters were light penetrations, leaf area index (LAI), chlorophyll content, crop growth rate, plant height, root depth, number of panicles /m2, 1000-grain weight, panicle length, number of spikelets / m2 *1000, spikelets-leaf area ratio, number of grains/ panicle, grain yield (t/ha) and straw yield (t/ha). The main results indicated that May first followed by May,15 caused an increase in all the previous characters except light penetration and plant height at maximum tillering and late booting. As for irrigation intervals, either irrigation every 4 days or every 8 days were the best for all the studied characters except light penetration and rood depth which reached to the maximum value under irrigation every 12 days. Results also revealed that the hybrid SK-2034 H (H1) surpassed the other two studied hybrids in most of the studied characters and produced the greatest grain yield moreover saved reasonable amount of irrigation water (984,3 m3/ha ) under 8 days intervals. So it can be concluded that cultivate the hybrid SK-2034 H (H1) hybrid through the first two weeks of May and irrigate it every 8 days intervals was the best combination to get higher yield and save of irrigation water without significant reduction in the yield.