Abstract:
Cotton productivity is
severely hampering by various diseases and
insect pests especially cotton leaf curl virus
(CLCV) worldwide. Losses caused by
CLCV are far more than any other factor
affecting cotton productivity. Growing of
early and resistant genotypes is of vital
significance in alleviating the adversities of
these pests in crop plants. The current field
trial was conducted at Central Cotton
Research Institute (CCRI) Multan, Pakistan,
to investigate the role of varying sowing
dates in managing the CLCV infestation
on different elite cotton genotypes. The crop
was sown on five different dates i.e. D1=
15th April, D2 = 1st May, D3 = 15th May, D4
= 1st June and D5 = 15th June and three
different elite cotton genotypes, i.e. V1=
CIM-612, V2 = CIM-591 and V3 = CIM-573
to optimize a suitable sowing date and to
screen out high productive and tolerant
genotype against the CLCV. Seeds were
drilled manually on finely crafted seedbed
by using single row hand drill keeping
seeding density of 20 kg ha-1 and inter row
spacing of 75cm. CLCV severely hampered
the crop performance by delayed planting of
cotton from 15th April; while increased the
chances of disease incidence. It is concluded
that early sowing of all tested genotypes
especially CIM-592 reduces the problem of
CLCV and enhanced cotton productivity.
