Potato is the fourth major food crop mainly grown in temperate climate zone and this region is expected to be mostly affected by upcoming global warming followed by arctic zone. Such climatic change can cause the decrease of potato crop yield. Thus, climate change impact assessment on potato growth and yield has become a great importance for construing proper adaptation strategies. Crop growth model would be a powerful tool for this purpose even if the model is calibrated and validated under the wide range of environmental condition. The objective of the present study was to calibrate and validate the SUBSTOR model using the experimental data collected in the field and temperatured-controlled plastic houses. The planting season experiments for collecting data was conducted in field and temperat-controlled plastic houses by employing three potato cultivars; Daeji, Sumi, and Chubaek at the Seoul National University Farm in Suwon during 2008 and 2009. Four plastic houses used for this experiment were controlled to ambient temperature (aT, aT+1.5℃, aT+3.0℃, aT+5.0℃), respectively. The model was calibrated by adjusting the genetic coefficients to the experimental data collected, and validated with the experimental data independent of calibration. The model simulated tuber yield very close to the observed, showing R²=0.92 for Daeji and R²=0.97 for Sumi. However, the model showed a little poor performance of R²=0.61 for Chubaek, Also, SUBSTOR-potato model showed low stability at water stress environment in this experiment.

Expanded rice husk (ERR) is different from commercial rice seedling media in chemical and physical properties such as pH, permeability, and water content. This study was conducted to test a possibility of improving rice seedling growth by improving the texture of ERR as a rice seedling medium. The seedling media used were a commercial seedling medium (CSM), rice husk, and ERR 1, 2, 3, and 4 with different expansion degrees. The pH of the ERHs ranged from 6.3 to 6.8. As the expansion rate increased, ERR particle sizes decreased, and water permeability and absorption rates improved. No significant differences in shoot dry weight and rate of maturity were found among the seedlings cultivated in the different ERH media. However, the mat formation of seedling roots became loose as the expansion rates were decreased. Further studies are necessary to determine the cause of poor root growth in ERH media.

Rice farmers can save labor and expenses by using expanded rice husk (ERH) as a seedling medium since ERH is lighter and cheaper than other commercial seedling media (CSM). This study was carried out to develop a method for rice seedling cultivation using ERH as a seedling medium. It is suggested that a mixture of 60~% of ERH and 40~% of a CSM could be used as a seedling medium; the planting densities would be 240g per tray for infant seedlings and 200 g for young seedlings; and nitrogen (N) would be applied at a rate of 1g per tray for infant seedlings prior to planting and 2g per tray for young seedlings with division. Great care should be taken to use CO(NH2)2 as an N-source fertilizer. These results would lay a foundation for the rice seedling cultivation with ERH as a medium.

A split-plot designed experiment including four rice varieties and 10 nitrogen levels was conducted in 2003 at the Experimental Farm of Seoul National University, Suwon, Korea. Before heading, hyperspectral canopy reflectance (300-1100nm with 1.55nm step) and nine crop variables such as shoot fresh weight (SFW), leaf area index, leaf dry weight, shoot dry weight, leaf N concentration, shoot N concentration, leaf N density, shoot N density and N nutrition index were measured at 54 and 72 days after transplanting. Grain yield, total number of spikelets, number of filled spikelets and 1000-grain weight were measured at harvest. 14,635 narrow-band NDVIs as combinations of reflectances at wavelength ~lambdal~;and~;~lambda2 were correlated to the nine crop variables. One NDVI with the highest correlation coefficient with a given crop variable was selected as the NDVI of the best fit for this crop variable. As expected, models to predict crop variables before heading using the NDVI of the best fit had higher r2 (>10~%) than those using common broad- band NDVI red or NDVI green. The models with the narrow-band NDVI of the best fit overcame broad- band NDVI saturation at high LAI values as frequently reported. Models using NDVIs of the best fit at booting showed higher predictive capacity for yield and yield component than models using crop variables.

The elongation of mesocotyl and coleoptile plays important roles in the seedling emergence and stand establishment of dry direct-seeded rice. Experiments were carried out to elucidate the effects of seed-presoaking treatments of GA3 and some inorganic salts on the mesocotyl, and coleoptile elongation of rice. Seed-soaked GA3 promoted the elongation of mesocotyl, but little effect on the coleoptile elongation. The stimulation effects of GA3 were found to be enhanced by addition of CaCl2 However, the sole treatment of CaCl2 showed no stimulating effect on the mesocotyl and coleoptile elongation. Mesocotyl elongation was most prominent in the combined treatments of 50ppm GA3 with 100 mM CaCl2 . The synergistic effects of GA3 and CaCl2 on mesocotyl elongation varied with varietal groups. The stimulating effects of GA3 were enhanced significantly by the addition of CaCl2 in japonica varieties, Dongjinbyeo, Ilpumbyeo and Milyang 95, and tall indica variety, Labelle, but not in semidwarf Tongil type varieties, Tongilbyeo, Milyang 23, and Nampungbyeo, and semi-dwarf indica, Short Labelle. The promoting effects of GA3 on the mesocotyl elongation were decreased in proportion to the lowered osmotic potential by PEG 6000 on the contrary to CaCl2 This implies that the synergistic effects of CaCl2 with GA3 on mesocotyl elongation was not caused by osmotic potential lowered by CaCl2 addition but by the salt itself. Salts such as Ca(NO3 )2 , MgCl2 BaCl2 , NaCl, KCl and KNO3 showed the synergistic effects with GA3 on mesocotyl elongation as well. The degree of synergistic effects showed no differences among salts tested, implying that there is no specificity of ions constituting the salts.

Prediction of rice developmental stage is necessary for proper crop management and a prerequisite for growth simulation as well. The objectives of the present study were to find out the relationship between the plastochrone index(PI) and the developmental index(DVI) estimated by non-parametric phenology model which simulates the duration from seedling emergence(DVI=0) to heading(DVI=l) by employing daily mean air temperature and daylength as predictor variables, and to confirm the correspondency of developmental indice to panicle developmental stages based on this relationship. Four japonica rice cultivars, Kwanakbyeo, Sangpungbyeo, Dongjinbyeo, and Palgumbyeo which range from very early to very late in maturity, were grown by sowing directly in dry paddy field five times at an interval of two weeks. Data for seedling emergence, leaf appearance, differentiation stage of primary rachis branch and heading were collected. The non-parametric phenology model predicted well the duration from seedling emergence to heading with errors of less than three days in all sowings and cultivars. PI was calculated for every leaf appearance and related to the developmental index estimated for corresponding PI. The stepwise polynomial analysis produced highly significant square-rooted cubic or biquadratic equations depending on cultivars, and highly significant square-rooted biquadratic equation for pooled data across cultivars without any considerable reduction in accuracy compared to that for each cultivar. To confirm the applicability of this equation in predicting the panicle developmental stage, DVI at differentiation stage of primary rachis branch primordium was calculated by substituting PI with 82 corresponding to this stage, and the duration reaching this DVI from seedling emergence was estimated. The estimated duration revealed a good agreement with that observed in all sowings and cultivars. The deviations between the estimated and the observed were not greater than three days, and significant difference in accuracy was not found for predicting this developmental stage between those equations derived for each cultivar and for pooled data across all cultivars tested.