The effect of plant spacing on yield, fiber quality and some physiological parameters in cotton

This study was carried out to determine the effect of different plant spacing on cotton yield, yield components, fiber quality traits and some physiological parameters. The study was conducted at Siirt University Faculty of Agriculture Department of Field Crops experimental area as randomized complete block design with four replications in 2017. BA 119 cotton variety was used as plant material. In the study 6 different plant spacing applications including control (Control, 5 cm, 10 cm, 15 cm, 20 cm and 25 cm plant spacing) were investigated. It was determined that different plant densities caused significant statistical differences in terms of number of the first fruiting branch, number of boll, ginning percentage, seed cotton yield, fiber yield and NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index). Plant height, number of monopodial branches, number of sympodial branches, boll weigth, seed cotton weight/boll, number of seeds/boll, 100 seed weigth, canopy temperature, chlorophyll content, leaf area, fiber fineness, fiber length, fiber strength, fiber elongation, fiber uniformity, short fiber index, fiber reflectance, fiber yellowness and spinning consistency index.were non significant. The highest values in terms of seed cotton yield, fiber yield, ginning percentage, number of first fruiting branch and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI value) were obtained from the control and 5 cm plant spacing, while the highest boll number value was obtained from 20 cm and 25 cm plant spacing. In the study investigated physiological parameters such as canopy temperature, leaf area, chlorophyll content and fiber technological traits did not shown any significant effect. The study was conducted with BA 119 cotton variety and it was concluded that the results reflect the climate conditions of the year of experiment and BA 119 cotton variety.