Effect of different transplanting and harvest times on yield and quality of pigmented rice cultivars in the Yeongnam plain area

The effect of transplanting and harvest timing was evaluated for the production of high quality pigmented rice in the Yeongnam plain area. Rice was transplanted on June $2^{nd}$ and $14^{th}$ and harvested between 35 - 55 days after panicle heading at 5 - day intervals. Three black- and 3 red-pigmented rice cultivars (such as early cultivar : Josengheugchal, Jeogjinju; medium cultivar : Heugseol, Hongjinju; and mid-late cultivar : Sintoheugmi, Geongganghongmi) were studied. Yield components like spikelet number, ripened grain ratio, and 1,000 - grain weight of the black- and red-pigmented rice cultivars were similar for both the June 2 and June 14 transplantings but panicle number per $m^2$ was higher for the June 14 transplanting than for June 2. This contributed to a higher brown rice yield for the June 14 transplanting, by 6 - 19% for black-pigmented rice, and by 10 - 21% for red-pigmented rice than the yield for the June 2 transplanting. Total anthocyanin and polyphenol productions of the pigmented rice were also higher in the June 14 transplanting than that in the June 2 transplanting due to high brown rice yield. Based on the combined pigmented brown rice yield, we concluded that the optimal harvest timing would be 40 - 45 days after panicle heading (DAH) for the black-pigmented rice and 45 - 50 DAH for the red-pigmented rice. This study suggests that optimum transplanting and harvest timings play an important role for production of high quality pigmented rice in the Yeongnam plain area.