Narrative
Spring heads in70 - 75 days, is approximately 112 cm in height, and on a relative straw strength scale (0 = very strong, 9 = very weak) rates 4 (Francis, Wells, LaGrue, and Cocodrie rate 3, 3, 3, and 2, respectively). R ough rice grain yields of Spring compare favorably with other very-short-season cultivars in the Arkansas Rice Performance Trials (ARPT) In 23 ARPT tests (2001-2004), Spring, Maybelle, Jefferson, and Cocodrie averaged yields of 7862, 6653, 7610, and 8770 kg ha-1 (120 g kg-1 (12%) moisture), respectively. Milling yields (mg g-1 whole kernel:mg g-1 total milled rice) at 120 mg g-1 moisture from the ARPT, averaged 640:710, 610:710, 630:710, and 670:720, for Spring, Maybelle, Jefferson and Cocodrie, respectively. Spring, is rated R to common rice blast (Pyricularia grisea (Cooke) Sacc.) races IC-17, IE-1, IG-1, and IH-1 under Arkansas conditions, using the standard disease scale R = resistant, MR = moderately resistant, MS = moderately susceptible, S = susceptible and VS = very susceptible to disease. Spring is rated MR to IB-1, and MR-S to IB-49. Spring is S to blast races IB-33 and IE-1k. Spring is rated MS to sheath blight (Rhizoctonia solani K|hn), MS to kernel smut (Tilletia barclayana (Bref.) Sacc. and Syd. in Sacc.), S to stem rot (Magnaporthe salvinii (Cattaneo) R. Krause and R. K. Webster), MR to leaf smut (Entyloma oryzae Syd. and P. Syd.), M to brown leaf spot (Cochliobolus miyabeanus (Ito and Kuribayashi in Ito) Drechs. ex Dastur), MS to false smut (Ustilaginoidea virens (Cooke) Takah), S to crown (black) sheath rot (Gaeumannomyces graminis (sacc.) Arx and D. Olivier var. graminis), S to straight head a physiological disorder, and MS to damage caused by the rice stink bug (Oebalus pugnax). Spring plants have erect culms, green erect leaves, and glabrous lemma, palea, and leaf blades. Lemma and palea are straw colored with straw to brown colored apiculi, and some short tip awns on the lemma at maturity. Individual milled kernel weights of Spring, Maybelle, Jefferson, and Cocodrie, averaged 16.7, 16.6, 19.7, and 17.9 mg, respectively, in the ARPT. The endosperm of Spring is nonglutinous, nonaromatic, and covered by a light brown pericarp. It has average apparent starch amylose content of 216 g kg-1 and an intermediate gelatinization temperature (70 - 75o C), as indicated by an average alkali (17 g kg-1 KOH) spreading reaction of 3 to 5.