The effect of different foliar fertilizer applications on cotton yield and fiber quality properties

This study was carried out to determine the effect of different foliar fertilizer application on cotton yield, yield components, plant development and fiber technological characteristics. 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 2018. Stoneville 468 cotton variety was used as plant material. In the study six different organic fertilizer (Control, Fullexan, Cifamin BK, Cifoumic, Sinergon 2000, Macys BC 28) were used. All of the foliar fertilizers used are organic fertilizer and applied as foliar fertilization during flowering period of plants. In the study seed cotton yield, plant height, number of monopodial branches, number of sympodial branches, the number of first vegetative branch's node, number of nodes, height / node rates, boll number, boll weight, seed cotton boll weight, 100 seeds weight, first picking percentage, fiber fineness, fiber length, fiber strength, fiber elongation, fiber uniformity, fiber reflectance, yellowness, short fiber index and spinning consistency index were investigated. In the study seed cotton yield ranged between 352,58 and 419,91 kg/da, plant height ranged between 76,86 and 83,81 cm, the number of monopodial branches ranged between 1,79 and 2,43 number/plant, number of sympodial branches ranged between 10,96 and 14,46 number/plant, the number of first vegetative branch's node 5,28 to 5,78 number/plant, number of nodes 16,74 to 19,06 number/plants, height/node ratio 4,29 and 4,75 number/plant, boll number 13,41 to 22,29 number/plant, boll weight 6,12 to 6,37 g, seed cotton boll weight 4,57 to 4,91 g, 100 seeds weight 9,00 to 9,44 g and first picking percentage ranged between 90,11 to 94,84%. It has been determined that the application of foliar fertilizers does not make a significant statistical difference on all agronomic and fiber technological properties examined. It was concluded that the use of foliar fertilizers may be beneficial in case of plant nutrient deficiency symptoms. It is thought that foliar fertilizer applications should be supported with different varieties and studies to be carried out for longer years and it would be more appropriate to repeat the applications more than once.