RESPONSE OF FOUR COTTON VARIETIES TO PLANT DENSITY

Abstract

The objective of this study was to know the response of four cotton varieties to plant density in the narrow row production system (0.70 m).Three early (CIAN Precoz, CIAN Precoz 2, and CIAN 95) and a late (Deltapine 80) cotton varieties were evaluated on four plant densities; 70,000 (check), 78,000, 94,000, and 108,000 plants ha^-1 To get these plant densifies a distance between of 20, 17, 15, and 13 cm was given, respectively. The characteristics measured were the seed-cotton and lint cotton yields, earliness, yield components and fiber quality. In this production system the early cotton varieties showed higher seed-cotton, and lint cotton yields than the late variety. The best variety was CIAN Precoz with a lint yield 18% higher than the yield of Deltapine 80. The three higher plant densifes outyield by 9% the yield of the low plant density (70,000 plants ha^-1). The yield of CIAN Precoz and CIAN Precoz 2 increased as plant density increased, and the other two varieties showed their higher yield potential at a plant density of 78,000 plants ha^-1. At first harvest the early varieties yielded between 800 and 1,600 kg of seed-cotton/ha more than the late variety. Yield components were not affected by plant density. Fiber strength decreased as plant density increased.