Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during kharif 2013 at Department of Agronomy, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana to investigate the effect of plant spacings and nitrogen levels on growth and yield in hybrid rice SVH 005 under transplanting conditions. The results showed that plant height, panicle length, grains/panicle, 1000-grain weight, straw yield and nitrogen uptake were not significantly influenced by different plant spacings and nitrogen levels. The effect of plant spacings and nitrogen levels was significant on effective tillers/m2, days taken to panicle emergence and grain yield. Highest grain yield (92.1 q/ha) was recorded when 100 kg N/ha was applied at 20 x 10 cm spacing which was statistically at par with 125 and 150 kg N/ha at 20 x 10 cm spacing but significantly better than all other treatment combinations. Closer spacings of 20 x 10 cm also took less number of days to panicle emergence as compared to wider spacings of 20 x 15 cm and 20 x 20 cm. Transplanting of rice at 20 x 10 cm spacing with application of 100 kg N/ha also recorded highest number of effective tillers/m2, gross returns and net returns as compared to other spacings and nitrogen levels.