Effect of Prohexadione Calcium on Growth Components and Endogenous Gibberellins Contents of Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Prohexadione calcium (Pro‐Ca) is a novel plant growth regulator that inhibits the late stages of gibberellins (GAs) biosynthesis in plants, thus reducing the vegetative growth of the plant. Pro‐Ca was applied to field‐grown rice cultivar Ilpumbyeo to evaluate its effect on growth and yield components and endogenous GAs, when applied at different rates and timings. This study illustrated that Pro‐Ca application decreased the internode length, stem length, panicle length, shoots fresh weight and stem lodging index, while stem breaking force was increased in all treatments. The effect of Pro‐Ca was more pronounced in 20 ppm concentration than 10 ppm. The number of panicles m^?2, ripened grain ratio and 1000 grain weight and milled rice yield parameters, increased with the application of Pro‐Ca, though the number of grains per panicle decreased insignificantly. The endogenous bioactive GA₁ contents significantly decreased with the application of Pro‐Ca, as the GA biosynthesis was interrupted at later stages, when GA₂₀ conversion to GA₁ was blocked, thus drastically reducing GA₁ and GA₈ levels, but only insignificant changes were observed for intermediates from GA₁₂ to GA₂₀. The levels of the endogenous GAs in rice shoots were measured by GC‐MS‐SIM using ²H₂‐labelled GAs as internal standards. Present results also illustrated that early application of Pro‐Ca was more effective than its late application for effective control of different growth parameters and thus reducing lodging in rice plants.