High plant density can improve the productivity of rainfed Asiatic cotton (Gossypium arboreum L.)

ABSTRACT

Planting at wide spacing is one of the reasons for low yields of Asiatic cotton (Gossypium arboreum L.). Yield levels can be improved by high planting density (HPD) through close spacing. Field studies were conducted with different rows (0.30, 0.45 and 0.60 m) and plant-to-plant spacing (0.05, 0.10 and 0.15 m) vis-à-vis recommended spacing (0.45 × 0.30 m). Plant-to-plant distance of 0.15 m had significantly taller plants with more nodes and a greater height-to-node ratio than 0.05 and 0.10 m. Treatments with 0.30 m row spacing produced more squares and bolls m⁻² and reached peak production earlier than the other treatments. HPD treatments had more (114.4–353.3 bolls m⁻²) and smaller bolls (1.74–2.29 g) than the recommended spacing (71.2–78.9 bolls m⁻², 2.38 g). Over years, seed cotton yield was significantly greater with 0.30 × 0.15 m (2430 kg ha⁻¹), 0.45 × 0.15 m (2306 kg ha⁻¹) and 0.30 × 0.10 m (2212 kg ha⁻¹) spacing treatments than the other treatments (1523–2051 kg ha⁻¹). Close-spaced HPD treatments yielded 19.2–59.6% more than the recommended spacing. Thus, HPD is a simple strategy to improve the productivity of compact Asiatic cotton cultivars.

KEYWORDS:

• Boll number
• earliness
• node number
• square production
• Vertisols

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the five anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions that led to significant improvements in the manuscript. We also acknowledge the help received from Mr. RM Ramteke, Technical Assistant during the conduct of the field experiment.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Government of India, New Delhi [TMC MM1.4].