Effect of soil and foliar-applied boron on the growth and yield of cotton

ABSTRACTMsc THESISEFFECT of SOIL and FOLIAR-APPLIED BORON on the GROWTH and YIELDof COTTONMehmet Ha im M EKDEPARTMENT OF FIELD CROPSINSTITUTE OF NATURAL AND APPLIED SCIENCESUNIVERSITY OF ÇUKUROVASupervisor : Asst.Prof.Dr. Özgül GÖRMÜYear-Pages : 2006-102Jury : Asst.Prof.Dr. Özgül GÖRMÜ: Prof. Dr. Saliha KIRICI: Asst.Prof.Dr. Ayfer TORUNThis study was conducted in 2004 to determine the effect of soil (1.5 kg/da, 3.0kg/da and 4.5 kg/da at planting time) and foliar-applied boron ( 45, 60 and 90 daysafter planting at rates of 200 ml/da, respectively) on the growth, yield and yieldcomponents of cotton.Boron applications significantly affected the most agronomic characteristisccompared with the untreated control. The highest total dry weights of total,generative and boll, leaf area index, were obtained from foliar applications of boronat rate of 200 ml/da at 60 DAP at the samplings taken 130 days after planting.At the harvest time samplings, the highest number of bolls, boll weight and lintpercentage were obtained with the foliar application of boron applied at 60 DAP.Foliar applications applied at 60 and 45 DAP at rates of 200 ml/ha produced thehighest seedcotton yields (395 kg/da and 387 kg/da, respectively). Soil applicationsapplied at planting time at rate of 15 kg B/ha gave the lowest yield (330 kg/da)among all treatments. The highest lint yields were abtained from foliar applicationsat 60, 45 and 90 days after planting, respectively.Key Words: Cotton, Boron Fertilization, Yield, Dry Matter WeightII