Mitigation of Abiotic and Biotic Stress Using Plant Growth Regulators in Rice
Ramasamy Ajaykumar,
Subramani Murali Krishnasamy,
Rajendran Dhanapal,
Govindaraju Ramkumar,
Pachamuthu Megaladevi,
Muthusamy Manjubala,
Perumal Chandrasekaran,
Thangavel Pradeeshkumar,
Chinnaraju Navinkumar,
Kanthaswamy Harishankar
Affiliations
Ramasamy Ajaykumar
Department of Agronomy, Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore 641 003, Tamil Nadu, India
Subramani Murali Krishnasamy
Department of Agronomy, Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore 641 003, Tamil Nadu, India
Rajendran Dhanapal
Department of Entomology, Adhiparasakthi Horticultural College, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Kalavai 632 506, Tamil Nadu, India
Govindaraju Ramkumar
Division of Basic Sciences, ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru 560 089, Karnataka, India
Pachamuthu Megaladevi
Department of Agricultural Entomology, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, Tamil Nadu, India
Muthusamy Manjubala
Department of Farm Engineering, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221 005, Uttar Pradesh, India
Perumal Chandrasekaran
Department of Biochemistry and Crop Physiology, SRM College of Agricultural Sciences, Chengalpattu 603 201, Tamil Nadu, India
Thangavel Pradeeshkumar
Department of Agronomy, VIT School of Agricultural Innovations and Advanced Learning (VAIAL), VIT, Vellore 632 014, Tamil Nadu, India
Chinnaraju Navinkumar
Department of Agricultural Metrology, Vanavarayar Institute of Agriculture, Pollachi 642 103, Tamil Nadu, India
Kanthaswamy Harishankar
Department of Agricultural Economics, Vanavarayar Institute of Agriculture, Pollachi 642 103, Tamil Nadu, India
Split plot design experiments were conducted to assess the performance of growth regulating compounds for mitigating moisture stress and the incidence of Brown Plant Hopper (BPH) in rice. The main plot treatments (4) comprised moisture stress free control (M1), moisture stress during panicle initiation stage alone (M2), moisture stress during flowering stage alone (M3), and moisture stress during both panicle initiation and flowering stages (M4). The sub-plot treatments (5) were foliar application of growth regulating compounds including chlormequat chloride at 200 ppm (S1), mepiquat chloride at 200 ppm (S2), brassinolide at 0.1 ppm (S3), pink pigmented facultative methylotrophs (PPFM) at 1% (S4), and no spray control (S5). The reduced plant growth attributes were registered under moisture stress at both panicle initiation and flowering stages. The spraying of 1% PPFM during the flowering or both at panicle initiation and flowering stages led to better performance than the other treatments. Also, spraying 1% PPFM brought down the population of BPH to a considerable level during both years of experiments. This suggests that spraying 1% PPFM in the post-flowering stage helps to mitigate the ill effect the moisture stress and BPH incidence.
