Alterações fisiológicas e morfológicas de duas cultivares de arroz irrigado após aplicação do herbicida imazamox na fase reprodutiva

Abstract

Weed control is one of the main agricultural practices indispensable to ensure profitability and crop success. In paddy rice field, red rice is the most important weed due to its difficult control. A widespread control method is the use of rice cultivars resistant to herbicides which are inhibitors of ALS, since it is possible to have a selective chemical control. Studies showed that the late control with imazamox promotes efficient control of red rice escapes. Thus, the objective of this research was to check the effects of imazamox application in the reproductive phase of two rice cultivars that differ in the level of resistance to imidazolinones. Two studies were carried out at the Federal University of Santa Maria in the years of 2009/10 and 2010/11. Imazamox was applied in different stadium of development and doses. At the end of the application the final dose was 80 g a.i ha-1 for all treatments. Results showed that independent of the date of the imazamox application in the reproductive phase of rice, the grain yield reduced and spikelet sterility of IRGA 422 CL increased. In general, the parameters 1000-grain weight, flag leaf length, panicule length, fresh and dry weight of panicles, and panicles per m2 showed a reduction in practically all imazamox treatments in the IRGA 422 CL cultivar. Changes in the biochemical parameters (chlorophyll, carotenoids, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, superoxide dismutase, catalase and ascorbate peroxidase) were observed in leaves and panicles from main culm in some treatments, demonstrating that the oxidative stress promoted by imazamox may have contributed to grain yield reduction and the high percentage of sterile spikelet from IRGA 422 CL cultivar. Morphologic and anatomical changes showed that imazamox application in the panicle differentiation promoted similar changes to homeotic changes observed in rice mutant. Moreover, in the other treatments different morphologic and anatomical changes were observed. Therefore, morphologic and anatomical changes were likely to be responsible for grain yield reduction and high percentage of spikelet sterile from IRGA 422 CL.