Growth of Bt cotton as influenced by time of fertilizer application and farm yard manure levels under rainfed condition

Growth of crop may differ with fertilizer application time and farm yard manure levels practices. Hence a field experiment was conducted at Experimental farm, Department of Agronomy, Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani (M.S.) during kharif 2021-2022 season to study the response of Bt cotton to time of fertilizer application and farm yard manure levels under rainfed condition. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications. The present investigation consisted of sixteen treatment combinations. Treatments details consist of time of fertilizer application in main plot and in sub plot four levels of FYM. The treatments were allotted randomly in each replication. Result of study revealed that among different time of fertilizer application (T1) application of basal dose at sowing, splitting of N as per recommendation recorded taller plant height, maximum number of functional leaves plant-1, highest number of monopodial branches plant-1 and highest number of sympodial branches plant-1 which was significantly better than (T3) application of basal dose at 30 DAS, splitting of N as 30% each at 45 DAS and 75 DAS and (T4) application of basal dose at 30 DAS, splitting of N as 30% each at 60 DAS and 75 DAS and found at par to (T2) application basal dose at 15 DAS, splitting of N as per recommendation. Among different levels of FYM application (M2) application of hill placement of 75% FYM at sowing recorded taller plant height, maximum number of functional leaves plant-1, highest number of monopodial branches plant-1 and highest number of sympodial branches plant-1 which was significantly better than (M1) recommended dose of FYM by broadcasting before last harrowing and (M4) control and found at par to (M3) application of hill placement of 50% FYM at sowing.