The study of this experiment is focused on labor saving of healthy rice seedling production using PSF (polypropylene spunbonded fabrics) as thermal protection material. Several factors such as different compositions of nursery soil and PSF materials were tested to produce healthy rice seedlings. The inner thermal protection material in PE film (polyethylene film) showed 0.9-1.7~circC higher than that of PSF 40-100 ~textrmgm-2 . The light transmittance-ratio also showed similar trends. It is considered that the appropriate PSF material density was 40 gm~textrmgm-2 in accordance with economic values and healthy rice seedlings. Plant height and dry weight according to various nursery soil showed the rang-es of 8.5-14.2cm and 5.5-10.0mg, respectively. In composition of nursery soil, artificial soil combined with paddy soil was effective in producing healthy seedling for rice seedling production. The total sugar content also showed the difference between PSF 40, 60 ~textrmgm-2 PE film (0.43-0.52mg FW ~textrmg-1 ) and PSF 80, 100 ~textrmgm-2 (0.28-0.35mg FW ~textrmg-1 ) and it showed the same tendency among varieties as well as various nursery soil. These results demonstrate that PSF 40 ~textrmgm-2 economically affordable, and can be recommended as thermal protection material for producing good healthy rice seedling.

An extensive investigation has been made for the possible utilization of polypropylene spunbonded fabrics in rice seedling nursery. Considering the cropping systems available in southern part of Korea, sowing dates were fixed at April 5 and April 20 for single cropping and May 6 and May 26 for double cropping. Nursery period was fixed to 35 days for each sowing date. Four different thickness of polypropylene spunbonded fabrics, 40, 60, 80, 100 g/m2 , were tested in rice seedling nursery. The temperature and light intensity were not significantly different among the thickness of polypropylene spunbonded fabrics. Light intensity was significantly reduced in polypropylene spunbonded fabric (72.2 Klux) compared with polyethylene mm (85.5 Klux), however, the reduced light intensity was enough for seedling growth. The temperature in the polypropylene spunbonded fabric covering during low air temperature was higher than that in polyethylene mm tunnel. At transplanting, the rice seedlings grown in polypropylene spunbonded fabric condition was shorter (17cm) but healthier than those in polyethylene mm (23cm). The estimated possible nursery periods using the polypropylene spunbonded fabric covering may start from April 1 at Chinju (plain area in Southern Korea, 20m altitude) and April 15 at Susang (mountainous area, 430m altitude). Labour hours and cost were reduced by about 28% and 48%, respectively.