Influence of real time nitrogen management on fiber quality parameters of Bt cotton

Abstract

Increase in productivity alone cannot benefit the cotton growers as quality of cotton fibre is the primary concernfor fetching higher price. In view of this the present investigation was carried out at Main Agricultural Research Station,Dharwad during kharif 2019 and 2020 to study the influence of real time nitrogen management practices on quality of Btcotton. Experiment was conducted with two genotypes (main plot) and eight real time nitrogen management practices(sub plots) in split plot design. Pooled data indicated that genotypes did not show any significant difference (P >.005) toquality parameters. Real time nitrogen management practices significantly influenced quality parameters (P <.0001). Nsupplementation at 1.1 - 1.5 response index (RI), 81 - 90 % sufficiency index (SI) and RDF recorded significantly higherfibre span length (28.88, 28.69 and 28.71 mm, respectively) and fibre strength (27.22, 26.95 and 27.13 g tex-1, respectively).Further, significantly higher uniformity ratio (86.00 %), fibre elongation (5.70 %) and ginning percentage (36.17 %) wasrecorded at N supplementation of 1.1 - 1.5 RI as compared to N omission (84.00, 5.55 and 33.17 %, respectively).Micronaire value did not differed significantly to genotypes and real time nitrogen management practices. Interactions werefound non-significant (P > .005) for quality parameters but when subjected to DMRT, genotypes with N supplementationat 1.1 -1.5 RI, 81 - 90 % SI and RDF were found on par and superior over N omission