Abstract:
This study was carried out to
determine the effect of SA (salicylic acid)
application on the yield, yield components,
and fibre quality characteristics of cotton at
different growth stages (squaring, flowering
and squaring + flowering). The experiment
was carried out at Siirt University, Faculty of
Agriculture, Department of Field Crop’s
experimental area during the 2022 cotton
growing season. The experimental design was
a split-plot design with four replications. The
main plot and sub-plots consisted of SA
applications [Control (0.0 mM), squaring (1.0
mM), flowering (1.0 mM), squaring (0.5 mM)
+ flowering (0.5 mM)] and varieties (MAY
455, Stoneville 468, Fiona), respectively. SA
application and variety interactions were
significant in terms of the first boll opening
days and the number of nodes. There were
significant differences between varieties,
except for the number of monopodial
branches, number of bolls, chlorophyll
content value, normalised difference
vegetation index value, and micronaire and
fibre strength. The MAY 455 cotton variety
had the highest values in terms of seed cotton
yield (2993.1 kg ha-1) plant height (62.14 cm),
boll weight (6.51 g), seed cotton weight per
boll (4.90 g), number of seeds per boll
(29.46), number of nodes to first fruiting
branch (8.65), fibre yield (1361.0 kg ha−1) and
100-seed weight (8.82 g), while the Fiona
variety came to the fore in terms of number of
days to first boll opening (118.0 d), number
of sympodial branches (7.56), number of
nodes per plant (17.79), ginning percentage
(46.45%), fibre length (828.52 mm) and fibre
reflectance (82.18 Rd). There was a slight
increase in yield (223.8 kg ha−1) compared to
the control. SA application may show
different effects on each cotton variety, and
the positive effect may increase by applying
SA at different intervals.
