Effect of Irrigation Management on Grain Filling Rate, Grain Filling Duration and Leaf Relative Water Content on Three Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Cultivars

In order to study the relationship between grain filling rate, duration and leaf relative water content (RWC) and yield, an experiment was conducted at Rice Research Institute of Iran, as a randomized block design in Split Plot with 3 replications, in 2006. 5 irrigation levels as main factor (Continuously flooded, days after water banishment, 5, 8 and 11 day intervals immediately after 10 days of transplanting) and sub main factor were used with 3 rice cultivars, Bahar (hybrid), Dorfak (improved) and Ali kazemi (traditional).Bahar cultivar showed the highest (6710 km/h) yield in continuous conditions. And no significant difference was observed between continuous irrigation conditions and 5 day interval irrigation. In continuous irrigation condition (except 1 day after flowering), Dorfak cultivar in all sampling had the highest grain weight in grain filling duration, but in days after water banishment Bahar had the highest grain weight(2/41). Grain filling rate in Dorfak in all treatments was higher than Bahar, and in Ali kazemi in all treatment s it was higher than the other cultivars. In all sampling dates (8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, 29 and 30day after heading), leaf relative water content of Ali kazemi was significantly less than Bahar and Dorfak. Dorfak produced the highest leaf relative water content. Results of the grain filling rate showed that Bahar with the longest grain filling duration and highest yield (6710 km/h) is more adaptable than Dorfak and Ali kazemi for different irrigation management conditions.