TITLE:
Response of Yield and Related Attributes of Upland Cotton to Weather Variables
AUTHORS:
Kalim Ullah, Muhammad Idrees Khan, Zahid Mahmood, Toheed Iqbal, Saeed Muhammad, Hafiz Abdul Haq, Aftab Ahmad, Sabahat Hussain
KEYWORDS:
G. hirsutum, Planting Time, Cumulative Heat Units, Cotton Cultivars
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.8 No.7,
June
29,
2017
ABSTRACT: Cotton
growth and development is effected by various ecological issues like
temperature fluctuations, distribution and quantity of rainfall, relative
humidity and winds which are the climate change attributes. A field experiment
was carried out to find out the response of cotton to weather variables in
terms of total variation in yield and quality. The effect of planting times and
thermal temperatures (cumulative heat units) on yield of 4 cotton cultivars
viz; CIM-600, CIM-616, CIM-622 & CRIS-641 was evaluated. Plants were sown
on 6 planting times during the year 2015-2016 and
2016-2017 in an experiment conducted in randomized complete
block design having three replications. Cotton cultivars depicted significant
variances for number of bolls plant-1, boll
weight and seed cotton yield. The cultivar CIM-616 depicted the highest seed
cotton yield of 2083.60 kg·ha-1 on
interpretation of highest bolls and boll weight. Maximum seed cotton yield was
noted in planting time from 1st April to 15th April whereas early and
late planting decreases the seed cotton yield on account of less accretion of
cumulative heat units. Regression analysis depicted that rise of one unit (15
days) from early to optimal date (15th March to 15th April) enhanced the seed
cotton yield by 93.76 kg·ha-1 (y = -93.764x2 + 521.04x + 1364). Delayed
planting also reduces the
seed cotton yield with the same ratio. It is therefore established that cotton
must be cultivated from 1st April to 1st May to harvest good
production in this type of climate.