No abstract

No abstract

Background: Climate change affects cotton production systems in multiple ways, and the impacts are expected to influence the national economy of India. The weather conditions prevailing during squaring, flowering and boll development stages determine the seed cotton yield. The needs for adaptation connected to optimizing the timing of critical growth stages to minimize stresses and enhance resource utilization. The adjusting of sowing times proved to be an important management technique for improving seed cotton yield. Results: The combined results for 3 years revealed that seed cotton yield was not influenced significantly by genotypes and interaction effect. However, the effect of date of sowing was significant. The best date of sowing was on 28 July which recorded the highest significant mean seed cotton yield (24.8 q/ha) compared with other sowing dates. Conclusions: Three years results of experiments show that the best date for sowing is 28 July which is optimum to realize higher productivity and profitability. Sowing window of cotton was re-standardized as from 21 July to 18 August. The existing recommendation of sowing window is 1 August to 31 August.

Background Gossypium arboreum is one of the cultivated diploids which has inherent resistance against insect pests and diseases, can withstand moisture stress, needs less nutrients and is suitable for erratic, less rainfall and marginal soils. Due to its smaller boll size and poor locule retentivity, adoption of species by farmers is very low. So, best long-linted G. arboreum genotypes with high yielding potential and suitable sowing time will be identified for rainfed tracts of cotton cultivated areas in India. Results The pooled analysis results found that the significantly highest mean seed cotton yield was recorded with Phule Dhanwanthry (1069 kg/ha) which was on par with K12 (1027 kg/ha), DLSA 17 (977 kg/ha) and PA 812 (951 kg/ha). Planting at 4 August yielded the significantly higher seed cotton yield (1345 kg/ha) in comparison with 4 September sowing (536 kg/ha). The interaction results in pooled data revealed that Genotype PA 812 planted at 4 August registered the significantly highest seed cotton yield (1487 kg/ha) which was on par with all genotypes sown on 4 August except PA 402. Amongst long-linted genotypes, PA 760 recorded the significantly highest upper half length (29.9 mm), mean length (24.9 mm) and fibre strength (27.0 g/tex) and fibre quality index (349.7); which was on par with DLSA 17, PA 812 and PA 402. The quality characters had not been influenced significantly by different times of sowing. Conclusions The results concluded that the significantly highest mean seed cotton yield was recorded with Phule Dhanwanthry (1069 kg/ha) which was on par with K12 (1027 kg/ha), DLSA 17 (977 kg/ha) and PA 812 (951 kg/ha). Planting at 4 August found that the significantly higher seed cotton yield (1345 kg/ha) in comparison with 4 September sowing (536 kg/ha). Amongst long-linted genotypes, PA 760 recorded the significantly higher fibre quality index (349.7)

No abstract