Abstract:In this study, early and late maturity rice cultivars were grown in the fields to investigate the effect of maturity group of cultivar, pathogen amount and sowing date on the severity of rice false smut. From our results, we identified three important correlations. First, the severity of rice false smut was dependent on the amount of chlamydospores present in the experimental field plot. Second, there was significant correlation between the disease severity and cultivar maturity, and late maturity cultivars were significantly more susceptible than early maturity cultivars. The percentage of diseased hills (DH), diseased panicles (DP) and diseased spikelets (DS) of late maturity cultivars was 76.3%, 26.6% and 4.6% in 2005, and 75.7%, 29.8% and 4.7% in 2006, respectively, whereas, DH, DP and DS of early maturity cultivars was 5.4%, 0.8% and 0.02% in 2005, and 16.8%, 3.3% and 0.08% in 2006, respectively. Third, there was no correlation between the disease severity of late maturity cultivars and sowing dates. It was suggested to decrease the severity of false smut by planting the early maturating group cultivars or using crop rotation to reduce inoculum in rice growing regions in northern China, where false smut of rice severely outbreaks.