Studies on standardisation of spacing and transplanting depth for a self propelled rice transplanter

A field experiment was conducted during March-June 2008 at wetland in Tamil Nadu Agricultural University to optimize the spacing and depth of transplanting in rice cultivation using a self propelled rice transplanter (Yanmar 6 row). The treatment consisted of 4 levels of hill spacing (30 × 32 cm, 30 × 22 cm, 30 × 18 cm and 30 × 16 cm) in the main plot and depth of planting (manual, 2 cm and 4 cm depth) in the sub plot. Higher DMP (24, 231 kg ha -1 ), root length (16.63 cm), number of panicles m -2 (862 m -2 ) and grain yield (7,167 kg ha -1 ) were produced when transplanting was done at 30 × 22 cm spacing (15 hills m -2 ). Among the depth of planting, increased plant dry matter production (17,498 kg ha -1 ), root length (17.28 cm), number of panicles m -2 (812 Nos. m -2 ), filled grains paniclel (113), panicle length (22 cm) and grain yield (7,667 kg ha -1 ) were produced in 4 cm depth.