Two field experiments were carried out at the experimental farm, Rice Research
and Training Center, Agricultural Research Center, Egypt, during the two growing seasons, 2010
and 2011. The experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of different nitrogen
biofertilizers and plant spaces on some growth characters, yield and its attributes and grain quality
characters of some Egyptian rice varieties. A split split-plot design with three replications was used.
The main plots were devoted to the rice cultivars namely Giza 178, Sakha 103 and Sakha 105,
while the combination of five nitrogen fertilizer sources was arranged in the sub plots (i.e. control,
nitrogen recommended rate of, micorrhiza +50% N rate, blue green + 50% N rate and microrrhiza
+blue green + 50% N rate) were assigned to the sub plots and three plant spacings (i.e. 10x150,
10x20 and 10x25) were assigned to sub sub plots.
The obtained results could be summarized as follow:
Sakha 105 cultivar recorded the highest panicle weight, No. of filled grains/panicle, 1000-grain
weight, and grain yield followed by Giza 178 while, Sakha 103 recorded the lowest values. On the
other hand, Giza 178 rice cultivar gave the largest No. of panicles/m2 in both seasons and the best
harvest index (HI). Rice cultivar Sakha 103 gave the highest straw yield followed by Sakha 105.
Rice cultivar Sakha 103 gave the highest hulling % while, Giza 178 recorded the lowest value in
both seasons. But Sakha 105 cultivar surpassed significantly the other two cultivars in head rice
and milled rice %.
Plant received half of the recommended rate of mineral nitrogen combined with micorrhiza
+ blue green recorded the greatest panicle grain weight, no. of filled grain/panicle, no. of
panicles/m2, weight of 1000-grain, grain yield and harvest index. The application of recommended
rate of nitrogen out yielded the other nitrogen sources and control in rice straw.
Highly significant differences were recorded between the three different plant spacing. Rice plants
which planted at 10 x 20 cm gave the highest values in panicle weight, no. of filled grains/panicle,
No. of panicles/m2, weight of 1000-grain, grain yield . While, the narrow plant spacing 10 x 15 cm
gave the highest value for straw yield among the other plant spaces. The greatest HI was recorded
when rice cultivars were planted at 10 x 20 cm while no differences was found between the other
two plant spacing.
Analysis of variance indicated that the differences in hulling % among the plant spacing
were significant. The highest means of hulling, milling and head rice % comes from planting at 10 x
20 cm followed by 10 x 25 cm.
The highest values on most traits, except straw yield, were obtained from the combination
of Micorhiza + Blue green + 50% of recommended nitrogen rate /ha under the medium spacing
conditions with Sakha 105 rice cultivar.