Effect of Seedling Age on Growth and Yield of Local Aman Rice Varieties in the Low Land Area of Southwestern Coastal Bangladesh

Suitable variety and optimum seedling age are important agronomic decisions for better productivity of rice particularly in the low land area. A field experiment was conducted at the experiment field of Agrotechnology Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna, Bangladesh during aman season (monsoon) to investigate the effect of seedling age on growth, yield attributes and yield of different local aman rice varieties in the coastal low land area of southwestern Bangladesh. Four different seedling ages (15, 30, 45 and 60-days old) and three local rice varieties (Ranisalute, Jatai balam and Basful balam) were used as experimental treatments. The experiment was arranged in a factorial randomized complete block design and replicated thrice. Earlier age seedling (15 days) substantially influenced the growth parameters but yield attributes and yield were significantly higher with 30-days old seedlings yet no significant variation with 45-days old seedling. 30-days old seedling produced 8-32% more grain yield than other seedling ages. Among the varieties, the highest plant height, yield components and yield were achieved from Ranisalute yet the yield variation was only 3-5%. From the findings of this experiment, it can be concluded that Ranisalute variety with the use of 30-days old seedling is better for low land area of southwestern coastal Bangladesh.