Influence of Naphthalene Acetic Acid And Cobalt Chloride on Growth and Yield of Cotton Hybrids

Influence of Naphthalene Acetic Acid And Cobalt Chloride on Growth and Yield of Cotton Hybrids

Field experiment on the effect of NAA and cobalt chloride on yield and its components on cotton hybrids RCH 314 Bt, RCH 134 Bt and their non Bt versions was conducted. Nine treatments included: single spray of 20 μg ml-1 NAA at flower initiation, two sprays of 20 μg ml-1 NAA at 15 days interval starting from flower initiation, single spray of 40 μg ml-1 NAA at flower initiation, two sprays of 40 μg ml-1 NAA at 15 days interval starting from flower initiation, single spray of 10 μg ml-1 cobalt chloride at flower initiation, two sprays of 10 μg ml-1 cobalt chloride at 15 days interval starting from flower initiation, single spray of 15 μg ml-1 cobalt chloride at flower initiation, two sprays of 15 μg ml-1 cobalt chloride at 15 days interval starting from flower initiation. The treatments were sown in a factorial split plot design with three replications. NAA and cobalt chloride significantly increased the partitioning of dry matter to reproductive parts at 150 DAS. Two sprays of 20 μg ml-1 NAA with resulted in highest source sink ratio of 2. 90 as compared to control (1.96) at 150 DAS. Two sprays of NAA @ 20 μg ml-1 with 15 days interval starting from flower initiation gave highest number of bolls per plant (39.44), boll setting percentage (53.86) and boll opening percentage (82.18). The second highest boll number per plant (37.97) was recorded by two sprays of 10 μg ml-1 cobalt chloride with 15 days interval starting from flower initiation. Both these treatments also recorded an increased seed cotton yield of 23.03 q/ha and 22.71 q/ha as compared to control (17.40q/ha. Of the hybrids tested, RCH 134 recorded more yield as compared to RCH 314. Transgenic Bt versions recorded average of 22.29 q/ha seed cotton yield as compared to 18.50 q/ha in the non Bt versions clearly pronouncing the superiority of Bt cotton hybrid. Application of NAA and cobalt chloride did not have any significant effect on quality parameters such as lint percentage, lint index, seed index..