Effect of planting dates and nutrient management on double planted late sali rice (Oryza sativa L.) under lowland situation

A field experiment was carried out in lowland situation at the Instructional-cum-Research Farm of Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat during late rainy (kharif) season of 2013 and 2014 to study the performance of double planted late sali rice under 3 planting dates (10, 20 and 30 September) along with 3 nutrient management practices followed in second nursery (control, 20-10-10 kg N, P₂O₅, K₂O/ha and FYM @ 2 t/ha) and 2 levels of fertilizers (control and 20-10-10 kg, P₂O₅, K₂O/ha) applied in the main field. Sixty days (30+30 days) old seedlings of double transplanting rice variety, ‘Gitesh’ was used in the experiment. Experimental results revealed that delaying the planting dates from 10 September to 30 September, the grain and strawyields and almost all the yield attributes decreased significantly and consistently upto 30 September during both the years. On an average, the decreasein grain and straw yield with every 10dayssuccessive delay from 10 September to 30 September was 41.1 and 66.0 per cent and 13.3 and 24.4 per cent, respectively. Nutrient management followed in second nursery either through inorganic or organic source could not significantly influence the yield and yield attributes of rice. Application of fertilizer @ 20-10-10 kg N, P₂O₅, K₂O/ha in main field had not any significant response to grain yield but straw yield increased significantly over the control. The highest net returns were obtained when trans lanting was done on 10 September and fertilizers applied @ 20-10-10 kg N, P₂O₅, K₂O/ha both in second nursery and main field of rice crop.