Effect of humic acid and silicon on growth attributes and growth analysis of hybrid rice: Dhanya MC 13

An investigation was carried out during Late Samba season (Sep, 2022 – Feb, 2023) at Experimental Farm, Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar - 608 002 to study the effect of increased levels of NPK, bio-stimulants and silica application in hybrid rice. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design, replicated thrice with eleven treatments. Among the different treatments experimented, the application of 125% RDF + soil application of humic acid GR @ 25 kg ha-1 + soil application of silicon GR (soil conditioner) @ 25 kg ha-1 (T11) recorded the highest growth attributes and growth analysis viz., plant height (71.06, 106.20, and 118.73 cm at active tillering, panicle initiation and at harvest stages), number of tillers hill-1 (15.89 at maximum tillering stage), dry matter production (7323, 11892 and 14735 kg ha-1 at active tillering, flowering and at harvest stages), LAI (3.82 and 5.96 at active tillering and flowering stages), CGR (15.23 and 9.48 g m-2 day-1 at active tillering to flowering and flowering to harvest), RGR (16.16 and 7.15 mg g-1 day-1 at active tillering to flowering and flowering to harvest), AGR (304.60 and 189.53 mg plant-1 day-1 at active tillering to flowering and flowering to harvest) of hybrid rice, respectively. Hence, treatment T11 remarkably increased the growth attributes and growth analysis of the hybrid rice.