Breeding High-yield, High-quality, Mid-season-ripening Japonica Rice, Huaidao 18

To breed a new rice variety suitable for cultivation in central Jiangsu, Huaidao 14 was crossed with Xu 23121. Through years of breeding and screening, a new mid-season-ripening Japonica rice, Huaidao 18, was selected. The new cultivar was characterized by high-yield, high-quality, strong over-all resistance, etc. It had an average growth period of 155.1 days, plant height of 98.7 cm, grain weight per panicle of 121.9 g, seed setting rate of 92.4%, and per 1000-grain weight of 28.0 g. In the 2012-2014 regional production trials in Jiangsu, it showed averagedannual yields of 709.7, 660.1 and 658.0 kg·hm^-2, representing the increases by 8.64%, 7.19% and 13.47%, respectively, for each year as compared to the reference, Huaidao 9. Subsequently, Huaidao 18 was certified by Jiangsu Committee for Crops Variety Registration in 2015. The new variety was, therefore, considered suitable for scale-up cultivation in central Jiangsu as well as hilly areasin Nanjing, Zhenjiang and Yangzhou.