Printed Sowing of High-Density Mechanical Transplanted Hybrid Rice Can Reduce the Amount of Fertilizer Needed

Abstract

In this study, we investigated how printed sowing machine transplanting impacts the yield of single-season rice by increasing the planting density and decreasing the amount of fertilizer needed. The study was aimed at exploring the relationships between the amount of fertilizer, transplanting density, and rice yield. During the rice growing season from 2019 to 2020 in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, six different field trials were conducted: low density and high fertilizer (LDHF), low density and low fertilizer (LDLF), middle density and high fertilizer (MDHF), middle density and low fertilizer (MDLF), high density and high fertilizer (HDHF), and high density and low fertilizer (HDLF). It turns out that compared to the LDHF, the thousand seed weight, the spikelets per panicle, the seed-setting rate, and the SPAD value at the filling stage decreased by 0.17% and 0.60%, 5.36% and 10.59%, 5.70% and 4.66%, and 17.52% and 4.93% in 2019 and 2020, respectively. However, compared to the LDHF, the panicles increased by 15.31% and 17.18%, respectively, the LAI at the filling stage increased by 1.92% and 0.48%, respectively, and the accumulation of dry matter above ground at the maturity stage also increased by 3.74% and 16.79% in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Therefore, compared to the yield of rice in the LDHF, the yield of rice in the HDLF increased by 5.06% and 6.64%. The yields of rice in the LDLF, MDHF, MDLF, and HDHF were lower than that in the LDHF and HDLF. The partial least squares path model (PLSPM) analysis showed that the fertilizer, density, and aboveground dry matter had positive effects on the yield, while the SPAD value and LAI had negative effects on the yield. This research shows that increasing the transplanting density can compensate for the yield loss caused by reducing the fertilizer amount. However, no combination of the transplanting density and fertilization amount can achieve the purpose of increasing the yield.