Effects of controlled and mid-gathering irrigation on paddy rice height and yield

A reasonable irrigation mode contributes to higher crop yield with less water consumption. It is important to understand exactly how irrigation modes differ from each other in effect on plant growth. In this paper, paddy rice was treated by three different irrigation modes and two field drying degrees, and plant height and yield were examined in order to find an appreciate irrigation mode for paddy rice. The study in different growth stages of paddy rice was carried out with the experimental method of the field-testing research technique combined with the lab-analysis. Results showed that, compared with the shallow wetting irrigation and flooding irrigation, paddy rice under the treatment of controlled and mid-gathering irrigation complying with heavy field drying brought about relatively higher crop yield but lower plant height, with higher lodging resistance. This suggested that controlled and midgathering irrigation had advantages over shallow wetting irrigation and flooding irrigation. The actual measurements of paddy rice plant height were well fitted by theoretical values obtained by dynamic model equation and the differences in paddy rice plant height during the whole growth period among different irrigation modes were all extremely significant (P≤0.01). Besides, the differences in paddy rice yield among irrigation modes were also extremely significant (P≤0.01), while there was no significant difference in crop yield between field drying degrees and no significant interaction between irrigation modes and field drying degrees on plant yield. In general, the controlled and mid-gathering irrigation mode was better for paddy rice growth and production.