Growth parameters and yield attributing characters of PR-118 (V1) and PR-116 (V2) varieties of rice (Oryza sativa L.) as influenced by different planting methods

Field experiments were conducted at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana (Punjab) to study the effect of different agronomic aspects of bed planting on growth and yield of rice during Kharif seasons of 2012 and 2013. The 30 days old seedlings of both rice varieties PR-118 (V1) and PR-116 (V2) were transplanted on 15th June (D1), 30th June (D2) and 15th July (D3). The two rice varieties were transplanted under bed planting (M1) and conventional planting (M2) methods respectively. The results showed that growth parameters like number of tillers per plant, dry weight per plant leaf area index (LAI) and plant height were significantly higher in bed planting than conventional method. In bed planting method, grain yield of rice (48.82q/h) was found to be more than the conventional method (35.74 q/h) during 2012.Varieties PR-118 yielded 47.61q/h more than PR-116 (39.97 q/h) in bed planting. Yield contributing characters like number of effective tillers, number of grains per plant and 1000-grain weight of rice were more in bed planting than conventional method. Harvest index and biological yield was also found to be more in bed planting method than conventional planting. Rice transplanted on 15th June yielded (50.15q/h) more than 30th June (41.45q/h) and 15th July (35.27q/h). Similar results were found in Kharif 2013. Interaction between dates of transplanting and varieties and between varieties and planting methods were found significant