Research Article
Effect of Plant Density on Four Short Statured Cotton Varieties
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M. S. Cheema
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Moazzam Jamil
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M. Rashad Farooq
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M. Aslam
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Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is an important cash crop of Pakistan. It covers an area of 2927.5 thousand hectares with annual production of 10731.9 thousand bales during the year 2000 (Anonymous, 2002). Cotton is not only a source of foreign exchange but it is also a source of income to farmers and labourers because local textile industry is based on the cotton production. Cotton seed is the major source of vegetable oil and oil seed cake for animal feed. Production of cotton use in textile industry.
Although Pakistan has been able to achieve breakthrough in production of cotton, yet there is vast gap between the potential and national average yield. Out of factors, limiting higher yield in cotton effective crop management practices particularly to maintain an appropriate plant population may help to get maximum seed cotton yield.
Cotton production plan pointed out that, plant population has been identified as one of the major factors responsible for low yield in the country (Anonymous, 1985). The PCCC recommended plant population of 60,000-75,000 plants ha-1 in Sindh and NWFP. Devi et al. (1995) stated that cotton cv. JKHY-1 was grown at densities of 55556, 74074 or 111 111 plants ha-1 and givan 0-160 N kg ha-1. Seed cotton yield was highest with 160kg N and at a plant density of 111 111 plants ha-1. Goudreddy et al. (1995) concluded that seed cotton yield was greater at the higher plant population and reduced by sowing in July compared with June. Jagannathan and Venkitaswamy (1996) reported that seed cotton yield decreased with increase in plant spacing and it was highest with 80 kg N + 40 kg P + 40 kg K ha-1 while, seed cotton yield was unaffected by cultivars.
El-Din (1997) concluded all combinations of 3 plant densities (target populations of 140,000, 70000 or 46,666 plants feddan-1) and yield per feddan was highest at 70,000 plants feddan-1 in both years (1 feddan=0.42 ha). Esparza and Pedroza (1997) reported that cotton cv. laguna 89 grown at spacings of 10, 30 or 50 cm between plants. Plant density have no significant effect on seed cotton yield. Manjappa et al. (1997) concluded that cotton cv. RAMPBS 155 gave the highest yield of 3.11 t ha-1 when grown at 90 x 45 cm spacing. The lowest plant density of 4 spacing treatments tested. Shekar et al. (1999) grown cotton cv. DCH-32 at 9 different spacing. Seed cotton yield was highest (2881 kg ha-1) from 60 X 30 cm, which was the highest plant density (55555 plants ha-1) studied. Spacing at 90 X 30 cm2 gave the yield of 2675 kg ha-1 and it is suggested that this spacing should be more convenient for cultural operations.
The study was carried out at Agronomic Research Station, Bahawalpur during the kharif 1999 and 2000 to find out the optimum plant population in exploring the maximum yield potential of cotton varieties. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with four replications, having a plot size of 3 X 6m2. The experiment involved the following levels of the two factors
Factor 1
Varieties
V1 | NIAB-Karishma | V2 | NIAB-78 |
V3 | CIM-443 | V4 | CIM-448 |
Factor 2
Plant spacings
S1 | 10 cm | S2 | 20 cm | S3 | 30 cm |
Row spacing was maintained at 75 cm
The observations for each entry were recorded on yield and yield components. Data were collected analyzed statistically using least significant difference test (Steel and Torrie, 1984).
The analysis of variance showed significant differences among plant spacings in cotton varieties. A thorough scrutiny of the data revealed a superiority of plant spacings of 30 cm over others.
The data (Table 1) depicts a detailed scenario of yield performance at different plant spacings of four cotton varieties. The highest mean seed cotton yield of 2657 kg ha-1 was obtained when plant and row spacings were 30 and 75 cm respectively, followed by (2640 kg ha-1) for plant and row spacing 20 and 75 cm respectively. A significantly lowered weights were obtained when plant and row spacings were 10 and 75 cm respectively. The interaction between varieties and plant spacings was also significant, reflecting the optimum plant spacing for different cotton varieties under study. These results are in line with those reported by khan et al. (1975) and Goudreddy et al. (1995) and not in line with those reported by Devi et al. (1995), El-Din (1997) and Shekar (1999). As for as varieties were concerned V. NIAB-Karishma gave the highest yield (2702 kg ha-1) with significantly lowered values for V. CIM-443, V. CIM-448 and NIAB-78 i.e., 2634, 2557 and 2509 kg ha-1 respectively.
Irrespective of varieties, maximum no of bolls plant-1 were attained by plant spacing 30 cm followed non significantly by plant spacing of 20 cm, while the significantly lowest values were recorded by plant spacing 10 cm (Table 2). These results are in line with those reported by Sinha (1974) and not in line with Katarki et al. (1970).
The data (Table 3) explains that boll size was maximum when plant spacings was 30 cm followed significantly by plant spacing 20 cm while, least value was obtained by plant spacing 10 cm with standard row spacing. The interaction between plant spacings and varieties were also significant reflecting the optimum plant spacing for different cotton varieties under study. Similar findings were reported by Emiroglu (1970).
Table 1: | Effect of plant spacing on seed cotton yield (Kg ha-1) of different varieties of cotton |
Table 2: | Effect of plant spacing on boll plant-1 of different varieties of cotton |
Table 3: | Effect of plant spacing (cm) on 100 bolls weight (g) of different varieties of cotton |
As for as varieties were concerned, all the varieties were statistically same for this yield components. On the basis of two years results it was concluded that maximum seed cotton yield was obtained when plant and raw spacings were 30 and 75 cm respectively followed by plant and row spacing 20 and 75 cm respectively.