Nitrogen doses and timing of topdressing application affects the sensibility of rice plants to low temperature in reproductive stage. For these reasons it were installed two experiments with the objective of determining the effect of nitrogen topdressing application doses and timing on the susceptibility of rice plants to low temperature in the reproductive phase. The experiments were sowed in 2007/08 growing season in a greenhouse at Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agropecuária (INIA), INIA Treinta y Tres, Uruguay, with INIA Olimar cultivar. In both experiments, a factorial experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design, with four replications (factor A: stages or rates of N application and factor B: temperature treatment, with or without cold). In the experiment 1 the treatments of factor A were N application of 30 kg ha-1 in V4, V5, V6, V7, V8, R0, R1+4 days and an untreated check without N in topdressing. In experiment 2, the factor A was doses of N: 0, 23, 46 and 69kg ha-1 in V4 stage and the same levels of N in R0 stage plus a check without N in topdressing. The plants were treated with 12.5 C during seven hours for four nights when the collar of the flag leaf was at the same height of the previous leaf. The following aspects were evaluated: grain yield; spikelet sterility; SPAD index at three, ten and sixteen days of low temperature treatment; number of panicles per plot and weight of 1000 grains. Spikelet sterility was not affected by the application of N in different stages or doses, by cold treatment or their interaction, but the cold treatment affected temporally the SPAD index with delaying panicle emerge. It is not necessary to modify the N applications for this variety in Uruguay.
flooded rice; low temperature; SPAD index
