Growth and Yield Variation of Clay-coated Rice Seeds in Direct Seeding Culture on Dry Paddy

Clay-coated rice seeds (clay-coated seeds A and B) were directly sown on dry paddy and their growth and yield were compared with the normal drill-sown seeds on dry flat paddy. In clay-coated seeds, germination was 1 day earlier and the emergence rate was higher up to 5% than that of normal drill-sown seeds. But the apparent number of seedling stand per m2 was lower than that of normal drill-sown seeds, which is due to the smaller amount of seeding in clay-coated seeds. At the early growth stage, the plant height of clay-coated seeds A was taller than that of drill-sown seeds, while the plant height of clay-coated seeds B was 0.7 cm shorter than that of drill-sown seeds. At the late growth stage, however, the difference was in-significant in both cases. The maximum tillering stage was 10 days earlier in drill-sown seeds. Lodging index was the lowest in clay-coated seeds B and there was no difference between clay-coated seeds A and drill-sown seeds. The ratio of stem base weight, culm diameter and culm wall thickness were higher in clay-coated seeds, while the lower internodes (4th, 5th and 6th) length was shorter in clay-coated seeds than in drill-sown seeds. In clay-coated seeds, the number of panicle per m2 was smaller, while the num-ber of spikelet per panicle was a little larger than in drill-sown seeds. The rate of ripened grain and brown rice 1,000 grain weight were lower in the clay-coated seeds, thus the yield was 98~99% level of drill-sown seeds. Consi-dering that the amount of seeding in clay-coated seeds was two-thirds of that in drill-sown seeds, it is expected that clay coating method could become an additional technique for direct seeding cultivation.