Abstract
Tillering is closely related to environmental conditions including the accessibility to nutrients. Phosphorus (P) availability affects tillering dynamics in rice. A hydroponic experiment was conducted to identify the tillering dynamics of forty eight elite rice varieties in response to optimum (50 μM) and deprived (10 μM) P status in the growing medium. Results showed that there was a significant delay in tillering in P deprived condition. Days taken to tillering, shoot dry weight, root dry weight, growth rate, shoot P concentration, P uptake rate, P utilization efficiency and shoot : root dry weight ratio at the time of tillering were affected by the variety and level of P supply. There was no relationship between the time to initiate tillering and the age for maturity of a rice variety. The variety Bg 94-1showed least delay in tillering followed by Bg 454 and At 353 and they were identified as tolerant varieties while most of elite rice varieties were identified as susceptible rice varieties for P deficiency tolerance. Furthermore, days taken for tillering can be used as a nondestructive criterion in selecting plants in segregating populations at early growth stages for P deficiency tolerance.
Highlights
Soil is the natural source of phosphorus (P) for plants
Tillering is a major determinant of grain yield of rice (Gallagher and Biscoe, 1978), and it is affected by environmental conditions (Yoshidaet al., 1981).The environmental effect on tillering was minimized by conducting this study in a greenhouse using hydroponic culture
There was a significant effect of P level in the medium and their interactions on days to tillering, shoot dry weight, root dry weight, growth rate, shoot P concentration, P utilization efficiency (PUE) and shoot: root dry weight ratio at early tillering stage except the parameter, shoot p content
Summary
Soil is the natural source of phosphorus (P) for plants. A higher portion of P in soil presents in unavailable forms or not available closer to the rhizosphere (Holford, 1997).Available forms of P in soil are present in low concentrations, typically around 1–10 mM in the soil solution (Hinsinger, 2001).Long term studies conducted at the Rice Research and Development Institute, Sri Lanka, revealed that yields of high yielding varieties remained at 2.5 – 3 t/ha in plots which did not receive chemical or any form of fertilizer.
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