Effects of different planting times on nep and seed coat formation and fiber quality of somecotton cultivars

This study was conducted at Çukurova University, Cotton Research and Application Center in 2019. The objective of the study was to determine the effect of planting time treatments on nep and seed coat fragment formation and fiber quality properties of upland cotton varieties and to investigate the correlations among the studied characteristics. The field experiment plot was laid out in a split-plot designin a randomized complete block with four replications and planting times were maintained as main plots, while the varieties were kept as sub-plots. Fiber maturity, fiber strength, yellowness (+b), total nep count, seed coat nep count were influenced by different dates of planting. In terms of fiber fineness, fiber maturity, fiber length, uniformity index, fiber strength, reflectance (Rd), total nep size, seed coat nep count variety differences were found to be significant. Variety x planting time interaction was significant for fiber length and short fiber content. The number of total neps found in ginned lint ranged from 91.92 to 100.75 neps/g lint, while the number of seed coat nep in ginned lint ranged from 24.92 to 36.75 neps/g lint over planting times. Total nep size ranged from 759.50 to 845.25 µm over varieties. In terms of varieties, seed coat nep number in lint ranged from 2.13 to 39.13 neps/g lint. It was concluded that most of lint contaminants (neps, seed coat neps, trash) were not found to be significantly affected by different dates of planting.