Chin J Plant Ecol ›› 2012, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (4): 324-332.DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1258.2012.00324

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Comparison of tillering productivity among nodes along the mian stem of rice

WEI Ming(),LIAO Xue-Qun,LI Dong-Xia,DUAN Hai-Long   

  1. College of Agronomy and Biotechnology , Engineering Research Center for Agriculture for Southern Mountainous Region of Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400716, China
  • Received:2011-09-23 Accepted:2011-11-01 Online:2012-09-23 Published:2012-03-28
  • Contact: WEI Ming

Abstract:

Aims Our objective was to determine the economic yield of the main stem and the primary (P), secondary (S) and tertiary (T) tillers from the 2nd to 9th nodes on the main stem of rice.
Methods We planted rice (Oryza sativa) variety ‘Shanyou63’ with one plant per hill (100 cm × 50 cm). Treatments consisted of limiting tillers to one main stem node only, on two or four consecutive main stem nodes at lower (L), middle (M) and upper (U) positions with the same 16 panicles and the constituents of each order tiller per plant.
Important findings The main stem leaf number and panicle weight increased as the number of tillering nodes decreased and tillering nodes shifted higher on the main stem. In the treatments with same number of the specific nodes, the average panicle weight of P was U > M > L. The average panicle weight of S was M > U > L in the treatments with one specific node and U > M > L in the treatments with two or four specific nodes. The average panicle weight of T was M > U > L in the treatments with one specific node, M > L > U in the treatments with two specific nodes and U > M > L in the treatments with four specific nodes. Consequently, the average panicle weight of whole tillers was M > U > L and U > M > L for one or two and four specific node(s). These results showed that the economic yield of tillers of L was not necessarily higher than the tillers of M or U, though the tillers of L emerged earlier and had more leaves than the tillers of M and U. Hierarchy (the percentage of mean panicle weight of each order tiller(s) to mean panicle weight of the main stem) of the average panicle weight of tillers increased as the positions of specific nodes shifted higher while the trend was slower as the number of specific nodes increased. These results indicated that in order to compare the productivity of lower, middle and upper nodes on the main stem, number of the tillering nodes and the makeup of tillers must be the same, and without this premise, it seemed that any conclusion was arbitrary.

Key words: rice, node productivity, over compensation, tiller