Adaptability of rice varieties or combinations with good quality and high yield in South China

Objective  In order to screen out good quality and high yield rice varieties or combinations suitable to be planted in Southern China for direct production or indirect utilization as breeding materials.

Method  A complete randomized design was adopted to investigate, the demonstration planting trial was conducted in Zhuhai of Guangdong Province in the early season of 2019, using five varieties or combinations including ‘Huahang 48’, ‘Jingxianyou 0405’, ‘Jingxianyou 0505’, ‘Ruanhuayou 1179’ and ‘Ruanhuayou 6100’ as experimental materials, and the variety of ‘Meixiangzhan 2’ with good quality and high yield as the contrast. Yield traits and yield components as well as exterior quality traits were analyzed.

Result  All of five test materials belonged to the type of high yield and large grain. Their panicle number per hole were less than 22 panicles, which were lower than that of the contrast ‘Meixiangzhan 2’ with 24 panicles. Filled grain number per panicle and thousand-grain weight of all exceeded 117 and 20 g respectively , being significantly higher than the contrast. Five materials with over 47.3 g grain weight per hole increased production by more 28% compared with the contrast. On the other hand, the exterior qualities of five test materials were slightly inferior to the contrast, with grain length being less than 9.7 mm, grain width more than 2.5 mm, ratio of grain length to width less than 3.8, grain projection girth less than 20.5 mm and grain projection area more than 16.8 mm². The results of correlation analysis indicated that there were significantly positive correlation between grain number per panicle, thousand-grain weight, grain width, grain projection area and yield, but negative correlation between grain length, ratio of grain length to width, grain projection girth and yield, which confirmed the increasing yield effects from filled grain number per panicle and thousand-grain weight, and reflected the conflict between exterior quality and yield.

Conclusion  ‘Huahang 48’, ‘Ruanhuayou 1179’ and ‘Ruanhuayou 6100’ have excellent performance in Southern China in early season, which can be directly applied in production. ‘Jingxianyou 0405’ and ‘Jingxianyou 0505’ can be applied to the aim of production to improve yield, or indirectly utilized as the middle breeding materials for high yield and good quality.