Determination of Most Suitable Rice Transplanting Time for Mechanized Cultivation and Achievement of Highest Yield in Mazandaran Province

Due to the high labor costs in the production of rice, use of rice planting and mechanization is one of the basic strategies for sustainability and preparing healthy and strong seedling, transplanting and reducing the cost of rice production. Crop response to mechanized planting with planting machines due to differences in the density and type of planting is different. Therefore, this study aimed to achieve the most suitable criteria on for transplanting age of four varieties of rice. Experiments were conducted in the year of 2009 was conducted at the Chaparsar Rice Research Station (Tonekabon city). crop, using a split-plot design in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The main factor included four levels of transplanting ages (20, 27, 33 and 40 days) and the subplots were four varieties of rice cultivars (Hashemei, Khazar, Hybrid and Shiroodi). Analysis of variance showed that transplanting age affected most of the factors and data shows significant differences at the level of 5, 1 and 0.1 percent. Effects of rice varieties also were significant on all factors. Correlation coefficient of data was positive and showed significant relationship with the parameters. The highest yield was achieved for 20 days rice transplanting age with the amount of 5166.9 kg per hectare. Among cultivars, the highest yield belonged to the Shiroodi verities with 5899.9 kg per hectare. Therefore, to achieve the highest yield potential of shiroodi verities, the 20 day transplanting ages is recommended for planting the rice transplanting by walking type transplanters.