[en] The flowering behavior and fiber quality traits were analyzed of six Gossypium hirsutum L. varieties and one G. barbadense variety that were cultivated in two environmentally different locations. Records of days after planting (DAP) at first floral bud emergence, DAP at first floral opening, plant height at first flower and nodes above white flower (NAWF) were analyzed statistically to study flowering behavior in both locations. Fiber traits were tested and records of micronaire, fiber length, strength, cohesion, elongation, ginning percentage, and weight of seed cotton were statistically analyzed to look for significant differences and correlations. Earliness and a decline in fiber strength, and fiber cohesion were obtained in varieties cultivated in Soujeh accompanied with an increase in ginning percentages. Uniquely, fiber elongation showed no significant differences in varieties between the two environments in both seasons. Our results indicated that stability in some fiber traits such as, micronaire, fiber length, strength and cohesion was a variety specific. Evidently, fiber elongation in our work was not affected by cultivation managements and environmental conditions which suggest the solid genetic bases that control this trait.(author)

[en] Experiments were conducted to study the relative influence of dry air and root environment on the transfer of soluble sugars from the leaves to the roots

No abstract available

[en] A field experiment was conducted using four (Gossypium hirsutum l.) cultivars (OM-448, OM-I00, NIAB-Karishma, 5-12) at four rates of potassium (0, 62, 5, 125, 250 kg K ha-1) and with two sources of potassium (K/sub 2/S0/sub 4/, KCI) to determine the effects of potassium (K) fertilizer on fruit production under irrigated conditions. Cultivars differed significantly amongst themselves in production and retention of fruits per unit land area. The cultivars were categorized as OM-448>OM-1100>Karishma>5-12 in order of fruit production. The number of total fruiting positions increased with concurrent levels of K-fertilizer. The shedding of fruit was significantly reduced by application of 250 kg K ha-1 compared to zero K-rate treatment. The addition of K-fertilizer in the form of K/sub 2/S0/sub 4/ showed an edge over KCI in fruit production. A high degree of correlation (r 0.89**,0.91**, -0.8**) was measured between seed cotton yield and number of total fruiting positions, number of intact fruit and fruit shedding percentage respectively. (author)

[en] Six commercial insecticides viz., decis 25EC (deltamethrin), thiodan 35EC (endosulfan), curacron 500EC (profenophos), somialfa 110EC (esfenvalerate), denitol 30EC (fenpropathrin) and advantage 20EC (carbosulfan) were tested with recommended doses against first instar larvae of cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera (Hub.) to determine their degree of toxicity under controlled laboratory conditions. Leaf dip method was applied for these tests. Insect mortality was assessed after 24, 48 and 72 hours of insecticide application. Results showed that curacron 500EC gave significantly high mortality of 100 % after 24 hours of application followed by thiodan 35EC, somialfa 110EC and advantage 20EC causing 93, 80 and 72 % mortality, respectively. Whereas, denitol 30EC and decis 25EC showed the minimum, non-significant differences by giving mortality of 45 and 43 %, respectively. Effectiveness of all insecticides increased after 48 hours but their degree of variation among each other's was non-significant. However, mortality increased to 100 % in thiodan 35EC, 85 % in somialfa 110EC, 78 % in both decis 25EC and denitol 30EC and 73 % in advantage 20EC. Results after 72 hours showed non-significant differences in % mortality in between the test insecticides. However, mortality increased to 100% in somialfa 110EC, 85% in denitol 30EC and 83 % both in decis 25EC and advantage 20EC. (author)

[en] The study reports the use of artificial food sprays to conserve the parasitoids and predators for the management of insect pests in cotton field. Cotton crop was treated with bio-control agents, Chrysoperla carnea and Trichogramma chilonis alongwith different food attractants such as Protein hydrolysate and sugar alone and in combination in a randomized complete block design. Each treatment was applied on one-acre field with three replications. Results showed that the chemicals tested helped in increasing the populations of beneficial insects including; C. carnea, T. chilonis and Orius spp., in the field. The populations of C. carnea and T. chilonis were found the highest in the combined treatment of protein hydrolysate and sugar as compared to other treatments where protein hydrolysate and sugar were used separately. However, the population of Orius spp. was higher in the treatment where only sugar solution was sprayed as food supplement. Consequently, incorporation of food supplements in the trial increased the establishment of natural enemies and subsequently the predation/ parasitism percentage enhanced on the insect pests of cotton. (author)

[en] The response of 15 cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) genotypes to salt stress was studied in terms of their biomass production and reduction ratios under salt stress. The cotton varieties were grown at different salt concentrations (0, 125 and 250 mM NaCl) in completely randomized splitplot design with 10 replications. Plant height, stem diameter, shoot fresh and dry weight, leaf area, and total dry weight were determined to compare their relative performance at salinity. Significant variations occurred among 15 cotton genotypes for all investigated traits with increasing salt level in growing medium. The cotton genotypes with good vegetative growth without salt stress had also good vegetative growth under salt stress. Based on biomass production and reduction ratios of cotton genotypes in salt stress conditions, it is concluded that Delta Opal, Golden West, and Deltapine 50 are salt sensitive Sahin-2000, Nazilli M 503 and TAM94L-25 are salt tolerant, while rest of the cotton genotypes are considered as moderately salt tolerant. (author)

[en] An artificial inoculation technique for the screening of cotton germplasm against cotton leaf curl virus (CLCuV) is described in this article. Present technique is improved shape of bottle shoot grafting method and is equally successful in field under high temperature conditions. The technique is simple and faster. Success of grafting and disease transmission was 100% in our experiments. (author)

[en] Bemisia tabaci is serious insect and constantly destabilizing the cotton production. The research was conducted to evaluate cotton cultivars (transgenic and non transgenic) for resistance against whitefly and further correlated with weather factors such as temperature, relative humidity and rainfall, during the cropping seasons 2010 and 2011. However, peak population (6.36 per leaf) was recorded from FH-113 followed FH-167 and FH-114, whereas minimum population was recorded from FH-4243 in transgenic group whereas peak population (5.24 per leaf) was recorded from FH- 941 followed by FH-100 and FH- 901 while minimum population was recorded from FH-207, in non transgenic group of cultivars in the year 2010. The incidence and abundance was much high and reaching towards two folds in the year 2011 but the trend of whitefly varied with peak population (11.03 per leaf) recorded from FH -167 followed by FH- 4243 and FH113 (from transgenic group of cultivars) whereas a peak of 10.77 per leaf population of whitefly, recorded followed by FH-901 and FH-941 (from non transgenic group of cultivars). FH-207 found more resistant from all ten cultivars studied in 2011. Correlation among weather factors and whitefly population showed that rainfall was negatively correlated while temperature and relative humidity were positively correlated with whitefly population. In addition to that situation is becoming worse because of shifting from conventional to more advanced transgenic cultivars that are susceptible and serve as host. Moreover, climatic conditions provide addition favor and helps in population buildup, abundance and incidence. (author)

[en] Four varieties of cotton were crossed in a complete diallel fashion to evaluate the mode of inheritance of different agronomic traits. Height of main stem, number of bolls per plant, boll weight and yield of seed cotton per plant appeared to be controlled by additive with partial dominance type of gene action. While number of seeds per boll was controlled by over dominance type of gene action. Variety MNH-93 possessed dominant genes for height of main stem, number of bolls per plant number of seeds per boll and yield of seed cotton per plant. AMSI-38 carried dominant genes for boll weight and recessive for number of bolls per plant, number of seeds per boll and boll weight. Height of main stem and yield of seed cotton were controlled by recessive genes in Variety AMSI-38. (author)