Growth of Brazilian Cotton Cultivars in Response to Soil Applied Boron

ABSTRACT

The growth of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) was evaluated in a 6 × 5 factorial experiment with 6 boron (B) levels (0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, and 3.0 mg dm⁻³), 5 cultivars (‘CNPA 8H’, ‘BRS Aroeira’, ‘BRS Antares’, ‘BRS Sucupira’, ‘BRS Ipe’), and 3 replications. As B increased in the soil, leaf B concentrations increased linearly in ‘BRS Aroeira’ and ‘CNPA 8H’, and quadratically in ‘BRS Ipe’ and ‘BRS Sucupira’. The concentrations of B in the leaves and in the soil increased with the B increasing in the soil. The agronomic characteristics evaluated showed ‘BRS Aroeira’ and ‘BRS Sucupira’ responding more and BRS responding less to the B doses applied. The variation in the effFiciency of B utilization was: ‘BRS Aroeira’ > ‘CNPA 8H’ = ‘BRS Antares’ > ‘BRS Sucupira’ > ‘BRS Ipe’. Cultivar ‘BRS Aroeira’ had the greatest potential to respond positively to the addition of B to the soil.

Keywords:

• boron
• cotton
• plant growth
• soil fertility

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

JFM thanks to CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico) for the financial support and to Centro Nacional de Pesquisa de Algodão (Embrapa) for providing the facilities for the experimental work. RLFF thanks to CNPq for the research fellowship.

Notes

°Significant at the 10% probability level;

∗ Significant at the 5% probability level.

∗Values in parentheses represent the mean standard error.

°Significant at the 10% probability level.

∗Significant at the 5% probability level.

¹Equations adjusted with data transformed for √x .

∗Significant at the 5% probability level

∗∗Significant at the 1% probability level.

¹Equations adjusted with data transformed for √x.

°Significant at the 10% probability level.

∗Significant at the 5% probabilitylevel.

∗∗Significant at the 1% probability level.