Grain quality of irrigated rice harvested at different moisture contents depending on fungicide application/Qualidade de graos de arroz irrigado colhidos com diferentes graus de umidade em funcao da aplicacao de fungicida

This study was carried out to verify the effect of fungicide application on rice grains of irrigated rice cultivars harvested with different moisture content. The experiment was conducted during the 2007/08 and 2008/09 season, and the experimental design was a strip plot with a factorial scheme (4x4x6) and four replications. Main factor was composed by four irrigated rice cultivars: BR-IRGA 409', 'IRGA 417', 'IRGA 422CL' e 'IRGA 423'. In the sub-plot the fungicide was applied with the formulated mixture of propiconazole+trifloxystrobin in the plants canopy at different development stages ([T.sub.1]--untreated check, [T.sub.2]--application in [R.sub.2] stage, [T.sub.3]--application in [R.sub.3] stage and [T.sub.4]--application in [R.sub.2] + [R.sub.4] stages). The different harvest times of the caryopsis were conducted in the sub-subplot in each strip and in each sub-plot, when they had 24, 22, 20, 18, 16 and 14 moisture content. Reduction of whole grains was observed in all treatments when grain moisture was under 20%, however the reduction was smaller when the fungicide was applied twice.