Abstract

A field experiment was carried out to investigate the relative performance of different varieties of cotton (MCU 5, MCU 7, MCU 11, ADT 1, SVPR 1, TCHB 213 and CCH 51) under sewage irrigation at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore during 1999. It was observed that MCU 5 was relativity more tolerant with better performance among the set of seven varieties. It was noted that the hybrids TCHB 213 and CCH 51 showed early good vigour but in the flowering and maturation phases suffered from lack of flower formation, flower shedding, boll settings and number of bolls per plant. On the other hand MCU 5, which performed lower than hybrids during carly stages showed greater tolerance during flowering and maturity phases. exhibiting better yield attributes. The varietal sensitiveness investigations under sewage irrigations gave evidences for the overall reduced growth behaviour of even relativity more tolerant crop like cotton. From the studies it appears reasonable to focus MCU 5 as an ideal variety for sewage irrigation; this variety gave seed cotton yield of 1183 kg la with fibre length value of 30.64 mm.

Keywords: Sewage irrigation, Cotton, Screening varieties for sewage.