Shoot Growth and Yield of Rice (Oryza sativa var. Indica) in the Combined Submergence and Salinity

The field experiment was conducted from June to September 2015 at the Field Research Facility of Faculty of Agriculture, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta. The study aims to investigate the response of the shoot growth and yield of rice on a combination of salinity and submergence. The study consisted of three submerged treatments and two salinity treatments. Overall there are six combination treatments with three replications, arranged in a split plot design. There was an interaction between duration of submergence and salinity on growth parameters (leaf area, the density of stomata, and the number of tillers) and yield parameters (number of productive tillers, harvesting age, the percentage of filled grain per clump, panicle length, and grain weight per clump). Combination of salinity and submergence increased leaf area, leaf sodium content, and time of harvest, but decreased stomatal density, number of tillers, percentage filled grain per clump, and grain weight per clump, compared to non-saline condition. Two weeks submergence in salinity decreased leaf area and percentage of filled grain per clump, compared to those at one week submergence. In non-saline water, submergence decreased the total number of tillers including productive tillers.