Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Growth and yield of American cotton(Gossypium hirsutum L.) as affected by planting methods and spacings

Dr. Gurtej Singh Cheema, PUNJAB AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY,LUDHIANA,INDIA AND G.W.FILMS,NEW DELHI, VPO.BHOLATH, KAPURTHALA, India and Dr. J.S. Deol, PUNJAB AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY,LUDHIANA,INDIA, DEPARTMENT OF AGRONOMY AND AGROMET., PUNJAB AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY, LUDHIANA, India.

 Research was conducted at  Students’ Research Farm, Department of Agronomy during kharif 2004.The experiment was laid out in split plot design with four replications. The main plot treatments considered of five planting methods viz .sowing on dry beds followed by irrigation ,On beds at optimum moisture, On beds made dry and then irrigated for settlement ,furrow planting and flat planting. The sub-plot treatments comprised of three plant to plant spacings i.e. 45,60,75 cm .Different planting methods had a non-significant on seedling emergence, plant height, total dry matter accumulation, leaf area index, number of monopodial, sympodial branches, flowers and bolls per plant, setting percentage, lint index, seed index, ginning out turn and total seed cotton yield. Among plant spacings, narrow spacing of 45 cm resulted in taller plants with more leaf index . However, the wider spacing (70 cm) resulted in significantly higher number of sympodial branches per plant, dry matter accumulation(g/plant),number of flowers and total bolls per plant . Plant spacings had a non-significant effect on total seed cotton yield.