Cotton (Gossypium Hirsutum, L.) is an important cash crop which attracts foreign currency for improved agricultural, industrial and economic development. Like any other field crop, cotton production has greatly been affected by climate change; hence the requisite to pay attention to the effects by developing and testing improved production technologies for sustainable cotton production. Adoption of suitable plant population densities coupled with appropriate nutritional combinations can build a strong case for improved production and productivity in the face of climate variability. An experiment to determine the effects of plant density and nutritional composition on seed cotton yield and its related components was carried out at Cotton Research Institute during the 2023 season. Three plant densities 27889, 36056 and 64167 were established as whole plots and five nutritional combinations as sub-plots comprised of N: P: K: S: B (64.25N:42.50P:25K:15S:0.9gB), (64.25N:42.50P:30K:15S:2.25gB), (64.25N:42.50P:35K:15S:3.60gB), (64.25N:42.50P:40K:15S:4.95gB) and100N:42.50P:145K:15S:18.9gB) in a split plot experimental design replicated three times. Plant density significantly influenced fruiting branches and number of bolls whilst no significant differences were recorded for seed cotton yield, gin out turn, plant height, boll weight and seed weight. No significant differences were recorded for nutritional combinations and interaction on all tested parameters. Low plant density (27889 plants/ha) recorded significantly higher number of fruiting branches (28.93) which were comparable to the highest population density (64167 plants per ha) (28.03) whilst 36056 plants per ha recorded the least number of 26.44. Plant density of 27889 plants per ha recorded a significantly higher number of bolls per plant (14.36), and was followed by Plant density of 36056 (12.17) which was comparable to population plant density 64167 (10.23).
ISSN: 2582-6425
Peer Review and Open Access Journal
Impact factor and Indexing Journal
