Influence of seasonal variability and conservation tillage on flower production and boll retention of Bt cotton (Gossypium hirsutum)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59797/ija.v60i4.4499Keywords:
Conventional tillage, Cotton, Gossypium hirsutum, Green manure, Reduced tillage, Tem- perature, VertisolsAbstract
An experiment was conducted at Central Institute for Cotton Research, Nagpur, Maharashtra, to monitor flower and boll production in Bt transgenic cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) hybrid (RCH 2 Bt. hybrid) as influenced by climatic factors and conservation tillage practices in selected treatments. Two reduced tillage (RT) systems, with limited soil disturbance in the form of inter-culture operations (RT1) and no soil disturbance (RT2), were compared with the conventional tillage treatment (CT). The tillage treatments comprised subplots with and without green ma- nure. Conservation-tillage treatments had 1215% more bolls retained on a plant than the conventional tillage. Ir- respective of the tillage systems, flower and boll production varied among years. Flower production correlated negatively with the maximum and minimum temperature (P<0.0001) and maximum and minimum relative humidity (P<0.001) during both the seasons. In general, sunshine hours and evaporation rate showed a non-significant positive correlation with flower production. In both the seasons, negative correlation was observed for boll produc- tion with maximum and minimum temperature (P<0.0001) and minimum humidity (P<0.40). Boll production corre- lated positively with evaporation rate, but the relationship was significant in the second season (P<0.01). Boll re- tention was 54.3% higher in the first season compared to 43.6% in the second season due to lower mean maxi- mum and minimum temperature. In general, temperature, relative humidity and evaporation rate were positively correlated with the number of bolls shed. These results indicate that seasonal variability has a greater impact on flower and boll production, irrespective of tillage treatments. Conservation-tillage systems may modulate and modify the adverse climatic effects such as high temperature and increasing moisture stress.References
Bhalerao, P.D. and Gaikwad, G.S. 2010. Productivity and profitability of Bt cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) under various plant geometry and fertilizer levels. Indian Journal of Agronomy
Blaise, D. 2011. Tillage and green manure effects on Bt transgenic cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) hybrid grown on rainfed Vertisols of central India. Soil and Tillage Research 114: 86
Blaise, D., Majumdar, G. and Tekale, K.U. 2005. On farm evaluation of fertilizer application and conservation tillage on productivity of cotton + pigeonpea strip intercropping on rainfed Vertisol of central India. Soil and Tillage Research 84: 108
Blaise, D., Venugopalan, M.V. and Raju, A.R. 2014. Introduction of Bt hybrids in India: Did it change the agronomy? Indian Journal of Agronomy 59: 120.
Brown, S. and Oosterhuis, D.M. 2010. High daytime temperature stress effects on the physiology of modern versus obsolete cultivars. American Journal of Plant Science and Biotechnology 4: 9396.
Burke, J.J., Velten, J. and Oliver, M.J. 2004. In vitro analysis of cotton pollen germination. Agronomy Journal 2: 35968.
Chopra, N.K. and Chopra, N. 2010. Evaluation of tillage systems and herbicides on wheat (Triticum aestivum) performance under rice (Oryza sativa)wheat cropping system. Indian Journal of Agronomy 55: 30407.
Draper, N.R. and Smith, H. 1966. Applied Regression Analysis. Wiley, New York.
Gipson, J.R. and Joham, H.E. 1968. Influence of night temperature on growth and development of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.). I. Fruiting and development. Agronomy Journal 60: 29295.
Hodges, H.F., Reddy, K.R., McKinnon, J.M. and Reddy, V.R. 1993. Temperature effects on cot- ton. Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Experimental Station, MSU, Mississippi, the USA.
Liu, J.X., Peng, S.J., Faivre-Vuillin, B., Xu, Z.H., Zhang, D.Q. and Zhou, G.Y. 2008. Erigeron annuus (L.) Pers., as a green manure for ameliorating soil exposed to acid rain in South
vances in Soil Science 15: 20551.
Reddy, K.R., Kakani, V.G., Zhao, D., Koti, S. and Gao, W. 2004. Interactive effects of ultraviolet-B radiation and temperature on cotton growth, development, physiology, and hyperspectral reflectance. Photochemistry and Photobiology
: 41627.
Reddy, K.R., Hodges, H.F. and McKinion, J.M. 1997. Modeling temperature effects on cotton internode and leaf growth. Crop Science 37: 50309.
Reddy, K.R., Hodges, H.F. and Reddy, V.R. 1992. Temperature effects on cotton fruit retention. Agronomy Journal 84: 2630. Reddy, K.R., Rohana, R.R., Hodges, H.F., Liu, X.I. and McKinion,
J.M. 1998. Interactions of CO2 enrichment and temperature on cotton growth and leaf characteristics. Environmental and Experimental Botany 39: 11729.
Ritchie, G.L., Bednarz, C.W., Jost, P.H. and Brown, S.M. 2004. Cotton Growth and Development. The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences: Cooperative Extension Service, Bulletin 1,252.
Sawan, Z.M. 2013. Studying the relationship between the climatic factors and cotton production by different applied methods. Journal of Stress Physiology and Biochemistry 9: 25178.
Sharma, A.R., Jat, M.L., Sahrawat, Y.S., Singh, V.P. and Singh, R. 2012. Conservation agriculture for improving productivity and resource use efficiency: Prospects and research needs in Indian context. Indian Journal of Agronomy 57(special issue): 13140.
Snider, J.L., Oosterhuis, D.M. and Kawakami, E.M. 2010. Genotypic differences in thermo-tolerance are dependent upon pre-stress capacity for antioxidant protection of the photosynthetic apparatus in Gossypium hirsutum. Physiologia plantarum 138: 26877.
Zhao, D. and Oosterhuis, D.M. 1998. Cotton responses to shade at different growth stages: Nonstructural carbohydrate composition. Crop Science 38: 1,196203.
Zhao, D., Reddy, K.R., Kakani, V.G., Koti, S. and Gao, W. 2005. Physiological causes of cotton fruit abscission under conditions of high temperature and enhanced ultraviolet-B radiation. Physiologia Plantarum 124: 18999.
