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Pak. J. Bot., 44(3): 891-897, 2012.

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SILICON TREATMENT TO RICE (ORYZA SATIVA L. cv ‘GOPUMBYEO’) PLANTS DURING DIFFERENT GROWTH PERIODS AND ITS EFFECTS ON GROWTH AND GRAIN YIELD

YOON-HA KIM¹, ABDUL LATIF KHAN^1,2, ZABTA KHAN SHINWARI³, DUCK-HWAN KIM¹, MUHAMMAD WAQAS¹, MUHAMMAD KAMRAN¹ AND IN-JUNG LEE¹*

Abstract: Silicon (Si) has been considered a beneficial element for plant growth. We have assessed the effects of Si application on rice (Oryza sativa L.) growth and its grain yield at field level. For this, we performed two experiments. In experiment 1, we applied Si of three different concentrations (liquid Si-10, 25 and 36%) to the seedbed of rice before transplantation into paddy field. The results of this experiment showed that Si application to rice seedbeds did not affected the rice plant height and shoot fresh weight but its application significantly increased the pushing resistance of rice plants from 12.2~16.7% as compared with water applied control plants. The lodging index of Si treated rice plants significantly decreased (13.7% on LS-25) as compared with control. Similarly, Si treated plants had significantly higher yield. Upon Si treatment (LS-36), the grain yield per 10 acre and panicles per plant were 15.1% and 6.3% higher than the water treated control plants respectively. The best concentration (LS-36%) revealed in the first experiment was foliar applied at 10 days before heading stage, initial tilling stage and panicle initiation stage to the rice leaves and we observed that shoot biomass was not significantly different between control and Si treated plants. However, significantly higher pushing resistance (10.5%~13.8%) and plant height (12.2%~16.7%) were observed while lower lodging index (7.6~7.8%) was recorded for Si treated plants as compared to control plants. Similarly, Si application increased the number of panicles per plant as well as the grain yield per 10 acre as compared to control. In conclusion, the Si application can significantly regulate plant growth and yield if applied at proper time with feasible concentration.  

¹School of Applied Biosciences, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, 702-701, Korea

²Department of Botany, Kohat University of Science and Technology, Kohat Pakistan

³Department of Biotechnology, Qauid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

*Corresponding author: e-mail: ijlee@knu.ac.kr