Effect of different sowing time on plant height, nodes, square and flowering initiation of Gossypium hirsutum under current climatic condition

Changing scenario of climate has moved the attention of scientists to modify the sowing time of various crops. Global warming has shifted the cultivation season of many crops as compared to previously adopted production technologies. It is a documented fact that early or late sowing of crops usually resulted in a significant reduction of yield. However, improvement in production technologies regarding sowing time of crops is the necessity of time to achieve the goal of sustainable yield. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted with the hypothesis that improvement in sowing time would improve the phenological attributes of various cotton genotypes. There were four cotton genotypes (CIM-595, CIM-598, CIM-599 and IR-3701) sown at five different sowing dates (March 15, April 01, April 15, May 01 and May 15). The seeds rate was 20 kg ha-1. Recommended NPK fertilizers were also applied to meet the nutritional demand of plants. Results confirmed that March 15 is the best sowing time for significant improvement in plant height (61.7 and 61.5%) and number of nodes per cotton plant (56.7 and 47.5%) of CIM-599 comparative to late sowing (May 15) of CIM-598 in year-I and year-II respectively. A significant improvement in square initiation (11.0 and 9.54%) and flower initiation (5.61 and 6.27%) in cotton validated the effectiveness of March-15 sowing as compared to May 15 during year-I and year-II respectively. Maximum increase of 3.91 and 2.77% in flower initiation and 4.48 and 8.22% in square initiation confirmed the efficacious role of IR-3701. It is concluded that both CIM-599 and IR-3701 have potential to give maximum growth if sowing would be done at March-15.