JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

In order to investigate the best planting time and rice cultivars for the conditions in Khuzestan Province, seven high quality cultivars of rice namely Domsiah, Binam, Ramasanali Tarom, Sang Tarom, Hasansarai, Tarom Mahalli, Daylamani and Anboori were selected and studied in 4 planting dates starting in Mid-May, with intervals of 15 days. The experiment was conducted as a split plot design in randomized complete blocks with 3 replications for 2 years from 1995 in Shavoor Agricultural Research Station. Main plots were planting dates and subplots were allocated to cultivars.

Results of this experiment showed that significant differences existed among planting dates on grain yield only in the second year. Grain yields were different among cultivars in the two years of study. Simple and combined analyses indicated that there were significant interactive effects between planting dates and cultivars. Tiller number was different between planting date and cultivars in the first year. Interactive effect between planting date and cultivars on tiller number was not significant. Maximum grain number in spike obtained early June planting date (76 grains per spike) and lowest grain number in spike obtained early May planting date (28 grains). Among cultivars, Anboori with 152 and Daylamani with 17 grains had maximum and minimum grain numbers in spike, respectively. One-thousand grain weight was maximum in the early June planting date. Among cultivars, Binam and Daylamani had maximum and minimum grain weights, respectively. Highest fertility percentage was obtained in early June planting date compared to other planting dates. Fertility percentage of cultivars depended on temperature at growth stages before and at anthesis, which was early June for all cultivars. Among environmental factors affecting plant growth, temperature was relatively more important than other factors, particularly than the photoperiod. Even under Khuzestan conditions, there is a wide range of temperature levels for rice planting (from early March to early November) however, even this wide temperature range may not be enough to provide favourable conditions for planting all the cultivars.