Growth and yield response of cotton cultivars at different planting dates

Cotton (gossypium hirsutum l.) is an important fiber crop and is considered the back bone of pakistan's economy. there are several yields limiting factors which create obstacles to achieve potential seed cotton yield. among agronomic factors,planting time and cultivar selection are considered as key factors to get optimum seed cotton yield under a particular environmental condition. for this a field study was conducted to evaluate the effect of two planting dates 15th may and 15th june and three cotton cultivars (fh-114,fh-142 and mnh-886) on seed cotton yield at sahiwal,punjab (pakistan) during 2014. the results indicated that sowing of cotton on 15th may significantly enhanced the seed cotton yield (3631.8 kg ha-1) by 45% over the late planting of cotton on 15th june and also improved the yield components. the cultivar fh-142 performed superior in terms of leaf area index (lai),total dry matter (tdm) (11018 kg ha-1) and seed cotton yield (3281.0 kg ha-1) as compared to the other cultivars. the different planting dates and cultivars significantly affected the sympodial branches per plant and average boll weight of the cotton crop. in conclusion,the selection of suitable cultivar (fh-142) and early planting of cotton at 15th may increased seed cotton yield under semi-arid conditions of sahiwal. © 2017,elite scientific publications.