Determination of seedling age for rice transplanter

Abstract

Rice transplanter isa labor saving technology. To find out suitable seedling age for ricetransplanter two experiments were conducted in Bangladesh Rice ResearchInstitute, Bangladeshin aman season (Sptember, 2012) and boro season (January, 2013). Seedlings wereraising in plastic trays using sandy loam soil mixed with 25% well decomposedcow dung. We evaluated 8, 12, 16 and 20 day’s old seedling of BRRI dhan49 andBRRI dhan46 in aman and 15, 20, 25 and 30 day’s old seedling of BRRI dhan29 andBRRI dhan45 in boro season. BRRI dhan45 and BRRI dhan46 were bold; BRRI dhan29and BRRI dhan49 were fine grain rice cultivar. Leaf number, shoot and rootlength, seedling vigor and strength increased with the advances of age in bothyears in all varieties. But bold type grain rice cultivar produced desirableleaf number and attained suitable height earlier than fine grain ricecultivars. The recommended seedling number (3 leaves per seedling) and suitableseedling height (12cm) could be achieved from 12 to 16 days old seedling in amanand 25 to 30 days old seedling in boro for transplanting using ricetransplanter. Farmer’s could be saved 4 to 5 US$ per 33 decimal from seedlingraising for transplanting by rice transplanter.