Abstract

A field experiment was conducted from August 2008 to January 2009 at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore to find out the influence of foliar application of nutrition on yield attributes, yield and fibre quality of Bt cotton. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design (RBD), replicated thrice. The treatments were T 1 - Urea - (1.5 %), T 2 - Diammonium phosphate (DAP) - (2 %), T 3 - Potassium chloride (KCl) - (2 %), T 4 - Potassium nitrate (KNO 3 ) - (3 %), T 5 - Potassium sulphate (K2 SO 4 ) - (1.5 %), T 6 - Polyfeed – (1.5 %) + Multi K - (1.5 %), T 7 - Zinc Sulphate (ZnSO 4 ) – (0.5 %), T 8 - Boron (solubar) - (0.2 %), T9 - Control. The results revealed that foliar application of Polyfeed (1.5 %) + Multi K (1.5 %) recorded significantly higher yield and better fibre quality such as ginning percentage, lint index, staple length, micronaire value, uniformity ratio, seed index, elongation percentage and tenacity at stray flowering and boll formation stages. Foliar nutrients significantly altered ginning percentage and lint index in Bt cotton.

Keywords: Foliar application, polyfeed, multi k, yield, fibre quality.