Ratooning Response of Lowland Rice NSIC Rc352 (Oryza sativa L.) to Method of Nitrogen Application

This study seeks to determine the effect of N fertilization method on ratoon lowland rice performance, to choose a fertilization method that provides high ratooned yield, and to assess its profitability adopting N fertilization method. The experiment lays out in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications and five N fertilization methods as treatments. Method of N application significantly affected the number of days to heading and maturity, plant height, leaf area index (LAI), number of productive tillers hill-1, panicle length and weight, number of filled and unfilled grains panicle-1. This method compensates cost of production of growing ratoon crop than those of the main crop. In fact, the highest profit (PhP25,564.80) was obtained in ratooned plants, which received 60 kg ha-1 N basal + 30 kg ha-1 N topdress application (T3) due to higher grain yield. Thereby, this is an appropriate option that provides high productivity and income for the ratoon growers.