Effect of Transplanting Date on the Growth, Yield, and Occurrence of Viviparity in Floury Endosperm Rice Cultivars in the Chungbuk Province

Rice consumption in Korea has been decreasing as the eating habits of the Korean people have diversified with rapid economic growth. Recently, floury endosperm rice cultivars were developed to boost rice consumption and replace wheat flour consumption with rice flour, which is vulnerable to viviparity under wet weather during the grain-filling stage because of its loosely packed starch granule structures. To overcome this limitation, it is necessary to find a suitable rice transplanting date to produce high-quality rice flour by altering the heading ecology type and changing the cultivation time by region. We examined four floury endosperm rice cultivars (FERC) in the Cheongju (central plain area) and Boeun (mid-mountainous area) regions of Korea from 2017 to 2019. Of the FERCs, the mid-late maturing types (MMT) Seolgaeng (SG), Hangaru (HGR), and Shingil (SGL) exhibited high yield and yield components after transplanting May 30 in both regions; the early maturing type (EMT) Garumi 2 (GRM2) also exhibited high yield after transplanting June 20 in Cheongju. In addition, MMTs showed the same tendency as the characteristics shown in Cheongju when grown in the Boeun region, and EMT displayed high yield and yield components after transplanting June 10. The FERCs could easily present pre-harvest sprouting in the rainy season during the grain-filling stage after 20 days post-heading because the mean temperature and frequency of more three-day rainfalls have increased over the last 5 years from the previous annual averages. Viviparity of HGR and GRM2 decreased as the transplanting date was delayed, with decreases of 2.3%–4.6% in HGR and 11.9%–23.1% in GRM2 according to the region. SGL was generally resistant to viviparity because of the Tongil type. To minimize pre-harvest sprouting and produce high yield of rice flour in the Chungbuk province, the most suitable transplanting time was the end of May in MMT and the middle and end of June in EMT.