Bi-phasic growth patterns in rice

Background and Aims When examining the growth patterns of rice crops for a 5-year period, it was found that the time course of accumulation of above-ground dry matter did not follow a simple sigmoid curve as expected for a monocarpic plant. Instead, there was a decrease in growth around flowering, followed by an increase and then a final decrease of growth at crop maturity. There are two nearly equal phases of growth in rice, with about half of the first phase of vegetative growth preceding reproductive growth. Methods Logistic curves were fitted separately to the vegetative parts of the crop and to the reproductive parts (the panicle). When the curves were summed, the combined curve gave a good description of the time course of above-ground dry matter, capturing the pause in growth and its resumption. The overall pattern of growth can be seen to be the result of this bi-phasic nature of the crop. Key Results Variations in the panicle phase of growth were shown to be largely a consequence of year-to-year variations in the weather, whereas the vegetative phase seemed largely independent of those variations. Conclusions Analysing rice growth as two components, each with a logistic curve, provides insight into the growth processes of the plant and the pattern of yield formation.