Abstract

                                Field experiments were conducted at farmer’s holding in Sengapadai village in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu to study the performance of direct seeding and transplanting of cotton seedling through auger hole method for rainfed vertisols. The experiments were conducted in a split plot design replicated thrice for three years. The main plot treatment consisted of four methods of establishmen viz., M1– Direct sowing in flat beds, M2– Direct sowing in pits filled with fortified coir pith, M3 – Transplanting in flat beds and M4 – Transplanting in pits filled with fortified coir pith. The sub plot treatments consisted of different spacing viz., S1 – 100 x 50 cm, S2 – 100 x 75 cm and S3 - 100 x 100 cm.Bt cotton hybrid Bunny NCS 529 was used for the study. Farmer’s practice of raising cotton in ridges and furrows was raised for comparison. The growth and yield attributes were higher when cotton seedlings were transplanted in auger hole filled with fortified coir pith. However, direct seeding of cotton in auger pits filled with fortified coir pith did not differ significantly from transplanting. Among the various spacing tested 100 x 100 cm recorded higher growth and yield attributes, but 100 x 50 cm recorded higher seed cotton yield and BC ratio.

Key words : Cotton, rainfed, auger hole seeding, transplanting