Abstract
A field experiment was conducted at the Federal College of Education, Eha-Amufu located within Southern Guinea Savanna Zone to examine the effect of cultivars, transplanting dates and sampling periods on some morphological traits of rice. The experimental treatments were two improved rice varieties (FARO 44 and FARO 52) and a local cultivar which served as standard check. The rice cultivars were planted at three different transplanting dates (June 10, June 20 and June 30) while three sampling periods of 6 weeks after transplanting (6 WAT), 9 WAT and 12 WAT were imposed across the three transplanting dates. The experiment comprised of 9 treatments, V1W1 (FARO 44 and 6 WAT), V1W2 (FARO 44 and 9 WAT), V1W3 (FARO 44 and 12 WAT), V2W1 (FARO 52 and 6WAT), V2W2 (FARO 52 and 9 WAT), V2W3 (FARO 52 and 12 WAT), V3W1 (local cultivar and 9 WAT), W3W2 (local cultivar and 9WAT) and V3W3 (local cultivar and 12 WAT) which were laid out in split plot design with three replications. Observation was taken on some growth parameters such as days to flowering, plant height, leaf area index, number of tillers and panicle length. The data collected were analysed using GENSTAT version 8.1 and means were separated by Duncan multiple range test. The result showed that, transplanting dates and cultivar differences influenced most of the morphological traits sampled. All the cultivars recorded taller plants in June 30 transplanting across all the sampling periods. Among all the transplanting dates, June 20 transplanting gave higher number of productive tillers hill-1 with FARO 44 producing significantly higher number of productive tillers during the June 20 transplanting and at 12 WAT sampling period. FARO 44 also gave the highest leaf area index at 9 WAT in June 30 transplanting and was the earliest to flower. The result further revealed that all the cultivars took lesser days to attain bloom in June 30 transplanting. It was therefore recommended that FARO 44 having exhibited better expression of most of the yield contributing variables should be further studied to determine the relative contribution of other traits to its paddy yield.
Key words: Growth parameter, rice, sampling periods, transplanting date
Publication Date: 2024-07-03