An experiment was conducted in the Centro Agropecuário da Palma, at the Universidade Federal de Pelotas (CAP/UFPel) with the objective of evaluating the effect of rice seed physiological quality and seeding rate upon grain yield and grain integrity percentage. It was tested in a factorial combination in two crop years (2000/2001 and 2001/2002), two physiological quality levels and different seeding rates. Seed lots of the cultivar IRGA 417 were obtained from official seed growers of Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. Seeding rates were 80, 140 and 200 kg per hectare in 2000/2001 and 80 and 150 kg in 2001/2002. The use of high physiological quality level seed lots propitiated yield increases of 8,2% and 9,0% in 2000/2001 and 2001/2002, corresponding to 622 kg ha-1 and 660 kg ha-1, respectivelly. Otherwise, different seeding rates did not affect grain yield.The use of lots of low seed physiological quality caused uneven maturation, reduction in 1000 grain weight. On the other hand, grain integrity percentage and index of harvesting were not affected. The variation in the seeding rate did not affect maturation uniformity, grain integrity yield and weight of 1000 grains.
Oryza sativa L.; seed quality; crop yield; grain integrity; percentage
