Latest approval results for new glutinous rice varieties in Jiangsu Province announced

Japan has recently bred a new spice plant produced by crossing onion and garlic. This new crop looks very much like garlic in appearance, but its bulb has a swirl-like structure like that of an onion, and it combines the flavors of both onion and garlic as spices. Although onion and garlic both belong to the Allium family, onion lacks the stickiness of garlic, and the two are "distant relatives" reproductively isolated at the species level; therefore, the successful breeding of this plant is a world first. Huainuo 12, formerly named "Huai 9702", was bred by the Huaiyin Institute of Agricultural Sciences of the Xuhuai Region of Jiangsu from 9516/Huai 9508 and developed in 2002; it is a late-maturing medium japonica glutinous rice variety. It is suitable for companion planting under medium-to-high fertility conditions in central Jiangsu and the hilly areas of Nanjing, Zhenjiang and Yangzhou.

I. Yield level and characteristics. It participated in the Jiangsu provincial regional trial from 2005 to 2006, with an average yield of 572.7 kg per mu over the two years, 9.4% higher than the control Wuyujing 3, and the yield increases in both years were highly significant; in the 2007 production trial, the average yield was 584.2 kg per mu, 15.7% higher than the control. Average results of the provincial regional trial: 217,000 effective panicles per mu, 110.7 filled grains per panicle, 91.9% seed-setting rate, and 25.7 g thousand-grain weight. Plant height 98.9 cm, whole growth period 149 days, 3-4 days earlier maturing than the control.

Compact plant type, relatively vigorous growth, medium panicle type, relatively strong tillering ability, dark green leaf color, good population uniformity, good late-season color, strong lodging resistance; inoculation identification showed moderate resistance to bacterial leaf blight, resistance to panicle neck blast, and high susceptibility to sheath blight; in field planting identification from 2006 to 2007, the highest hill incidence rate of stripe leaf blight was 19.7% (the two-year average hill incidence rate of the susceptible control was 70.5%); physicochemical indices of rice quality: according to testing by the Food Quality Testing Center of the Ministry of Agriculture in 2006, head rice rate 74.7%, gel consistency 100.0 mm, amylose content 1.4%, reaching the national standard for high-quality glutinous rice.

II. Key points of cultivation techniques

1. Sow at the proper time and cultivate strong seedlings: generally sow in early to mid-May; for wet seedling raising, sow about 20 kg per mu of net seedling bed; for dry seedling raising, sow 30-35 kg per mu of net seedling bed; use 3-3.5 kg of seed per mu of main field.

2. Transplant at the proper time and plant at a reasonable density: transplant in early to mid-June, with a seedling age of about 30 days; generally transplant about 20,000 hills per mu, with about 70,000 basic seedlings.

3. Scientific management of fertilizer and water: generally apply 18-20 kg of pure nitrogen per mu, with the ratio of basal and tillering fertilizer to panicle fertilizer preferably 6:4. Apply basal fertilizer before land preparation, and for panicle fertilizer give attention to both promoting and preserving. In water management, transplant with shallow water, tiller with shallow water, head and flower with water about one cun deep, and alternate wetting and drying in the later stage; when the total number of stems and tillers per mu reaches 200,000, drain the field moderately in stages, control the peak seedling number at about 280,000 per mu, and cut off water 5-7 days before harvest.

4. Control of diseases, insect pests and weeds: before sowing, soak seeds with chemicals to prevent seed-borne diseases such as bakanae disease and white-tip nematode disease; during the seedling stage and main field stage, pay attention to controlling small brown planthopper and rice thrips; in the middle and late stages, comprehensively control sheath blight, striped stem borer, rice leaf roller, rice planthopper, etc.