Growth, yield and grain quality of traditional paddy varieties as influenced by nutrient management practices

A field experiment was conducted during Kharif 2014 in red gravely loam soil at Agriculture and Horticultural Research Station, University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Honnavile to study the effect of different nutrient management practices on growth, yield and grain quality of traditional paddy varieties. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design (factorial concept) with four varieties and four different nutrient management practices with three replications. The high yielding paddy variety JGL-1798 recorded significantly higher plant height (81.6 cm),number ofeffectivetillers(29.0/hill),largerleafarea(361.6cm²/hill),leafareaindex(1.18), leaf area duration (104.8 days), total dry matter accumulation (91.5 g/hill), grain yield (4997 kg/ha) and straw yield (5488 kg/ha) compared to all traditional varieties. Among the different nutrient management practices, application of recommended FYM + 100 per cent recommended N equivalent through organics recorded significantly taller plants (74.8 cm), number of effective tillers (26.3/hill), leaf area (337.5 cm²/hill), leaf area index (1.69), leaf area duration (96.0 days), total dry matter accumulation (83.1 g/hill), grain yield (3580 kg/ha) and straw yield (4558 kg/ha). Higher hulling, milling per cent and lower cooking time were recorded with traditional paddy variety Chinnaponni along with the application of recommended FYM + 100 per cent recommended N equivalent through organics (73.2, 68.1% and 10.0 minutes, respectively). The variety Coimbatore Sanna along with application of recommended FYM + 100 per cent recommended N equivalent through organics recorded higher overall acceptability, amylose and starch content of cooked rice (8.0, 29.2% and 83.8% respectively). Higher water uptake ratio of cooked rice (1:6.7) was recorded in variety Mysore Mallige along with the application of recommended FYM + 100 per cent recommended NPK through inorganics. The volume expansion of cooked rice (14.8%) was recorded with variety Mysore Mallige along with application of recommended FYM + 50 per cent N equivalent through organics + 50 per cent NPK through inorganics compared to all other treatments.