Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

EFFECT OF FERTILIZER DOSES AND SPLIT APPLICATION OF NITROGEN AND POTASSIUM ON PRODUCTIVITY, PROFITABILITY AND QUALITY OF BT. COTTON (GOSSYPIUM HIRSUTUM L.) UNDER RAINFED CONDITIONS

R.T. Gawade, S.R. Imade, B.A. Gudade and M.R. Thakur

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at Cotton Research Unit, Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola (MS) during kharif season of 2009-10 on medium deep black soil under factorial randomized block design with fifteen treatment combinations replicated four times. The treatments imparted to cotton crop were 5 split applications of nitrogen and potassium and 3 levels of fertilizer. The result revealed that application of N and K in six splits i.e. 25% as basal and remaining in five equal splits starting from 15 DAS at 15 days interval significantly improved seed cotton yield, GMR, NMR and B:C ratio. Among the fertility levels RDF i.e. 50:25:25 kg NPK ha-1 was found to be effective in this respect. While fiber quality parameters remained unchanged due to fertilizer levels and split applications of nitrogen and potassium.