Rice Bran Application under Deep Flooding can Control Weed and Increase Grain Yield in Organic Rice Culture

Rice bran application just after transplanting has been increasingly practiced as an herbicide-substitute for organic rice production in Korea. However, this practice is frequently reported to be unsatisfactory in weed suppression. An experiment with five treatments that combines flooding depth, rice bran application dose, and herbicide treatment was done in the paddy field to evaluate whether rice bran application under deep flooding can lead to a successful weed control in compensation for the single practice of rice bran application. Rice bran was broadcasted on the flood water surface just after deep flooding of 8 to 10cm that was started at seven days after transplanting. In the shallow flooding plot without herbicide six weed species were recorded: Monochoria vaginalis, Echinochloa crus-galli, Ludvigia prostrate, Cyperus amuricus, Aneima keisak, and Bidens tripartite. Among the first four dominant weed species, deep flooding significantly suppressed the occurrence of Echinochloa crus-galli and Cyperus amuricus while did not suppress the occurrence of Monochoria vaginalis and Ludwigia prostrate. On the contrary, rice bran application under deep flooding suppressed significantly Monochoria vaginalis and Ludwigia prostrate while didn't exert an additional suppression of Echinochloa crus-galli and Cyperus amuricus compared to deep flooding alone. Rice bran application and deep flooding suppressed complimentarily all the six weed species to a satisfactory extent except for Monochoria vaginalis of which suppression efficacy was 31.9%. Deep flooding reduced the panicle number substantially by inhibiting the tiller production, increased the spikelet number per panicle slightly, and leaded to a lower rice grain yield compared to shallow flooding with herbicide. Rice bran application under deep flooding mitigated the panicle reduction due to deep flooding, increased the spikelets per panicle significantly, and thus produced even higher grain yield in the rice bran application of 2000kg $ha^{-1}$ as compared to the shallow flooding treatment with herbicide. In conclusion, this practice applying rice bran under deep flooding would be promising to be incorporated as an integral practice for an organic rice farming system.