COMPARATIVE EFFICACY OF DIFFERENT PLANTING METHODS AND WEED MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON SEED COTTON YIELD

A field experiment was conducted to assess the effect of different methods and weed management practices on seed cotton yield at Agronomic Research Station, Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan during cotton crop season 2006. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The experiment comprised of six sowing methods viz. Flat sowing by drill and weeding twice, Flat sowing and each row earthing up, Flat sowing and alternate row earthing up, dibbling on both sides of bed at proper moisture regime and weeding twice, dibbling on both sides of bed in dry condition and followed by irrigation and weeding twice and planting in flat and mulching up. Cotton variety CIM-534 was planted during 1st week of June, 2006. Pendimethalin @3.75 L ha-1 was applied as pre-emergence herbicide to all the treatments. Flat sowing by drill and every row earthing up proved to be the best sowing method by giving maximum seed cotton yield of 3542 kg ha-1 with minimum weed density of only 12 plants m-2 and biomass of 10 g m-2 followed by dibbling on flat and mulching by giving 3209 kg ha-1 with weed density of 15 plant m-2 and biomass of 18 g m-2 and flat sowing by drill and alternate row earthing up giving the same seed cotton yield with 16 weed plants m-2 and biomass of 20 g m-2. While the lowest seed cotton yield 2792 kg ha-1 was recorded in dibbling on both sides of bed at proper moisture regime with weed density of 55 plant m-2 and biomass of 84.7 g m-2.