Influence of Spacing, Age of Seedling and Bio NPK Consortium on growth, Yield Attributes and Yield of Transplanted Rice

A field experiment was carried out during kharif season of the year 2021 at Paddy Research Station, Anand Agricultural University, Dabhoi, Gujarat to investigate the influence of spacing, age of seedling and Bio NPK consortium on growth, yield attributes and yield of transplanted kharif rice. The texture of experimental soil was sandy clay it was low in available N (219.68 kg/ha), medium in available P2O5 (28.43 kg/ha), available K2O (183.00 kg/ha) and organic carbon (0.42%) with pH (7.49) and EC (0.39 dS/m). Twelve treatment combinations comprising of two spacing viz., S1 (20 × 15 cm) and S2 (25 × 25 cm), three age of seedlings viz., A1 (15 days old seedling), A2 (25 days old seedling) and A3 (35 days old seedling) and two Bio NPK consortium viz., B1 (with Bio NPK consortium) and B2 (without Bio NPK consortium), tested in split plot design which was replicated thrice. The result showed that rice crop transplanted at S2 (25 × 25 cm spacing) recorded significantly higher, number of tillers/m2 (335/m2), number of panicle/m2 (272.72/m2), panicle length (27.83 cm), panicle weight (7.01 g), number of grains(207.89/panicle, grain yield (5477 kg/ha) and straw yield (8957 kg/ha). However, transplanting of 15 days old seedling (A1) gave significantly higher number of tillers/m2 (335.08/m2), number of panicle/m2 (267.92 /m2), panicle length (26.67 cm), panicle weight (6.54 g), number of grains (201/panicle, grain yield (5200 kg/ha) and straw yield (8928 kg/ha) and remained at par with transplanting of 25 days old seedling. Seedling treated with Bio NPK consortium was not effective.