Mid-late Flowering, High Biomass Yielding Whole Crop Silage Rice Cultivar ‘Nokwoo’ Improved an Early Growth and Germination at Low Temperature

Abstract

‘Nokwoo’, a mid-late maturing, high dry matter yielding rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivar with a good early growth and low-temperature germinability, was developed for whole crop silage (WCS) use. It was derived from a cross between a leafy tropical japonica ‘LK1A-2-12-1-1’ with high biomass and good germinability in low temperature and new plant type (NPT), ‘IR72225-29-1-1’ which had low tillering trait, large panicle, dark green leaf, thick and sturdy stem and vigorous root system. This cultivar had about 123 days growth period from seeding to heading, 122cm culm length, 29cm panicle length, 9 panicles per hill, 144 spikelets per panicle and 1,000-grain weight of 24.4 g as brown rice in central plain region, Suwon. This wide and long leafy WCS rice variety was weak to cold stresses similar to ‘Nokyang’ but was a little resistant to lodging in the field, strong to viviparous germination and good to low temperature germination. In addition, ‘Nokwoo’ was resistant to leaf and neck blast but susceptible to bacterial blight, rice stripe virus and brown planthopper. Its average dry matter yield for three years reached 16.5 MT/ha, 14% higher than that of ‘Nokyang’. This cultivar had 5.3% crude protein and 68.8% total digestible nutrients a little low compared to ‘Nokyang’. In Korea peninsular, ‘Nokwoo’ grows well in central and southern plain and is good to harvest between 15 to 30 days after heading to improve its feeding value and digestion rate of livestock (Grant No. 6072).