Influence of Different Seed Rate and Nutrient Media on Growth Attributers of Tray Nursery Rice Seedlings for Machine Transplanting

A experiment was conducted at central farm of Agricult ural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai during the month of October, 2015 to study the effect of seed rate an d tray media for production of good quality seedlings for machine tr ansplanting. Treatment comprised in main four level of seed rate viz., 100, 80, 60, and 40 gram tray -1 and nine level of media viz., M 1–Native soil, M2 Native soil + FYM (4:1), M3 Native soil + VC (4:1), M4 Native soil + Coir pith (4:1), M5Native soil + Sand (4:1), M6 Native soil + FYM + VC (3:1:1), M7 Native soil + Coir pith + VC (3:1:1), M8Native soil + FYM + Rice husk (3:1:1), M9Native soil + FYM+ VC + Rice husk (3:1:0.5:0.5). The maximum seedlings growth att ributes viz., seedling height, root length, dry mat ter product (DMP) and SPAD values were noticed under combination f 40 g seed rate tray -1 with Native soil + Coir pith + VC than that of other treatment combinations. Hence, moder ate seed rate of 80 g tray -1 sowing in the media contain native soil + Coir pith + VC at 3:1:1 ratio can be recommend in prod uction of sturdy rice seedling for machine transpla nting.