Influence of seedling age and integrated nutrient management on growth and yield of aromatic rice (cv. BRRI dhan34)

To investigate the performance of aromatic rice (cv. BRRI dhan34) in response to seedling age and nutrient management, an experiment was carried out at the Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka from July to December 2021. The experiment includes three different ages of seedlings to be transplanted viz., 30, 45 and 60 days old and six nutrient management practice viz. control (no manures and fertilizers), recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers (RDF), 50% of RDF + cow dung @ 5 t ha-1, 75% of RDF + cow dung @ 5 t ha-1, 50% of RDF + poultry manure @ 2.5 t ha-1 and, 75% of RDF + poultry manure @ 2.5 t ha-1. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The results revealed that in the case of transplanting of different aged seedlings, the highest leaf area index (5.74), dry matter hill-1 (32.86 g), number of tillers hill-1 (13.17), number of effective tillers hill-1 (11.53), plant height (113.34 cm), total grains panicle-1 (135.14), 1000-grain weight (12.45 g), grain yield (3.29 t ha-1), straw yield (4.01 t ha-1), biological yield (7.30 t ha-1) and were recorded from transplanting 30 days old seedlings. Different levels of nutrient management showed a significant impact on most of the parameters under study. The highest total dry matter hill-1 (34.02 g), the maximum LAI (5.35), plant height (115.70 cm), chlorophyll content (42.87), number of effective tillers hill-1 (12.99), panicle length (24.63 cm), total grains panicle-1 (140.17), 1000-grain weight (12.54 g), grain yield (3.27 t ha-1), straw yield (4.15 t ha-1), biological yield (7.42 t ha-1) and harvest index (43.03%)  were also recorded in F5 (75% of RDF + poultry manure @ 2.5 t ha-1) treatment. While considering the interaction effects between the age of seedlings and nutrient management, transplanting 30 days old seedlings along with the nutrient management of 75% of RDF + poultry manure @ 2.5 t ha-1 treatment improved yield contributing parameters and provided the highest yield (3.76 t ha-1) of BRRI dhan34 compared to other treatment combination. So, the application of 75% of RDF + poultry manure @ 2.5 t ha-1 along with 30 days old seedlings appeared as a promising practice to obtain better performance of fine aromatic rice (cv. BRRI dhan34).