NEWS FROM HORIZON AG

Adjust Management to Maximize Variety Potential

This season’s strong demand for top-performing rice lines means you may be planting varieties that are new or unfamiliar.  If you are moving from a hybrid to a high-yielding, high-quality variety like CLL19 or CLL18, there may be adjustments to make. We want to encourage you to contact one of our district field representatives with any questions or to look at something in your field.

For example, hybrid rice types often require a “boot” application of nitrogen. However, farmers who traditionally plant hybrids but who are growing varieties this season will want to apply all the recommended nitrogen for the season by the time the plant reaches ½-inch internode elongation, versus applying nitrogen to our varieties that late.

The following is general background on some of our top varieties:

CLL19 is a Clearfield® rice variety with excellent yield potential and stability. It has very good seedling vigor. A semidwarf type, it is a few inches shorter than CLL16 and CLL18 and is moderately resistant to lodging. It is very early, with a heading date similar to CL111, and is four to eight days earlier than CLL18 and CLL16, respectively.

It contains the Pita blast resistance gene. It also contains the CRSP2.1 gene and is resistant to narrow brown leaf spot, while being moderately susceptible to Cercospora infection on the stem. It is moderately susceptible to sheath blight and bacterial panicle blight.

CLL18: A conventional height Clearfield rice variety with excellent yield potential and stability. It has excellent seedling vigor and is moderately resistant to lodging.

CLL18 does not contain the Pita blast resistance gene and is moderately susceptible to blast. It contains the CRSP2.1 gene and is resistant to narrow brown leaf spot and moderately susceptible to Cercospora infection on the stem. It is moderately susceptible to sheath blight and bacterial panicle blight.

Since CLL18 is later maturing than CLL19 and a few days earlier maturing than CLL16, it is a good planting partner with these other elite Horizon Ag varieties, allowing farmers to stretch out their harvest.

CLL16: A conventional-height Clearfield rice variety with excellent yield potential and stability, CLL16 has proven to maintain strong yield potential, even with later planting dates. It also has excellent seedling vigor and is moderately resistant to lodging.

The variety contains the Pita blast resistance gene and is resistant to blast. It also contains the CRSP2.1 gene and is resistant to narrow brown leaf spot and moderately susceptible to Cercospora infection on the stem. It is moderately susceptible to sheath blight and bacterial panicle blight.

New PVL04 is the first Provisia® Rice System variety developed by the University of Arkansas breeding program.

It contains the Pita blast resistance gene. It also has the CRSP2.1 gene and is resistant to narrow brown leaf spot, but is susceptible to Cercospora infection on the stem. We recommend applying a triazole fungicide at ½-inch internode elongation to 4-inch panicle formation. For rice planted in March, the timing usually is 2-inch to 4-inch panicle formation in the boot. For later planted rice, the timing is earlier.

Provisia Webinars

We had a great Provisia rice webinar with our partners in Louisiana last week, and hope you will join us on March 7, from 1-2:30 p.m. for the Arkansas Rice in 2024: Resistance, Best Management Practices and Stewardship webinar. Register at https://bit.ly/AR-Rice-Mgt.

If you missed last week’s Louisiana-focused Provisia rice webinar, you can still get some great tips for managing Provisia rice by watching it at https://www.horizonseed.com/varieties. We’ll also post the Arkansas webinar on our website after the event.