Heading date and rice growth at the grain filling stage of
VRF and FPM fields are shown in Table 4. Although there was
no difference in all measured rice growth characteristics, such as
culm length, panicle length, and number of panicles, between
VRF and FPM, CV of panicle number per hill and per m2 were
significantly higher at FPM (18.2 and 16.4) than at VRF (10.6
and 10.8). On the other hand, CV of culm length was not differ-
ent between VRF and FPM, and CV of panicle length was high-
er at VRF than at FPM, but a higher CV of panicle length did
not have any adverse impact on rice yield and quality. Low CV
of panicle number per m2 at VRF fields was also indicative of
more uniform panicles at the grain filling stage as compared to
FPM fields.