Improving Grain Productivity and Quality Criteria of Broadcasted Giza 179 Rice Variety Via different Potassium Treatments

Abstract

Field experiments were conducted in the 2018 and 2019 seasons at the Experimental Farm of Sakha Agriculture Research Station, Kafr-ELSheikh, and laboratory experiments conducted at Seed Technology Department, Field Crops Research Institute A.R.C. Giza, Egypt. The study aimed to evaluate the influence of different potassium application methods as follow, control treatment (no potassium application), 50 Kg K2O/ha as one basal batch and two splits, ½ as basal and ½ at 25 days after sowing and foliar potassium concentrations (0, 0.5, 1 and 1.5 % K2O) on Giza 179 rice variety. Twelve combinations were performed in a randomized complete block design with four replications. Yield attributes and grain yield, as well as grain quality charcteristics which involved grain dimension, milling recovery charcteristics, amylose content (AC), gel consistency (GC), gelatinization temperature (GT), and kernel elongation, were estimated. The findings revealed that splitting potassium fertilizer plus applying foliar application at the rate of 1.0 % lead to preferable yield attributes outcome, outstripped grain yield by 12.63 and 11.93 %, and ameliorated both of head rice percentage by 9.87 and 8.29 %, AC content by 4.19 and 4.02 % and decreased GC by 0.59 and 0.88 %, respectively in both seasons compared with one batch basal application. Using splitting potassium application plus foliar spray at 1.0 % K2O can apply to Giza 179 rice variety to optimize both of grain quantity and quality outcomes. Influence of different potassium treatments exhibited a significant effect on Seed Technology characteristics results.