IMPACT OF DIFFERENT SOWING DATE ON ADVANCED COTTON (Gossypium hirsutum L.) VARIETIES

The purpose of this study was to find out the effect of different sowing dates on advanced cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) genotypes. Three different cotton varieties (Sind-1, Th-120, and Star-2) and three sowing dates (May 9, May 16, and May 23) constituted the treatment groups. Current study indicators include plant height (cm), number of branches per plant, number of bolls per plant, ginning percentage, and seed cotton yield kg/ha. The following is a summary of the parameter-wise results. The current study found that the variety Star-2 recorded a maximum plant height of 130.56 cm, while the variety Th-120 recorded a plant height of 122.67 cm. On May 23rd, we recorded a maximum plant height of 136.78 cm, while on May 16th, we recorded a plant height of 132.22 cm. The findings revealed that plant 1 recorded the highest number of sympodial branches at 25.33, with a peak of 29.22 branches per plant on the 23Th-120, while May recorded 25.33 at 23.78, starting from a minimum of Star-2, followed by variety Th-120 at 23.78, and a minimum of 20.00 sympodial branches in variety Sindh-1. However, the 23rd of May recorded a maximum of 29.22 branches per plant. The results revealed that variety Star-2 recorded the maximum (45.11) number of opened bolls per plant, followed by variety Th-120 (41.83). However, the 23rd May sowing date recorded the maximum (45.89) number of bolls per plant, while the 16th May sowing date recorded the lowest (42.22). The 9th May sowing date recorded the minimum of 37.44 bolls per plant. Variety Star-2 recorded the maximum at 38.00, followed by variety Th-2120 at 33.56. However, the crop yielded a maximum of 37.78 GOT% when planted under the 23rd May sowing date. However, the highest seed cotton production was 3429.6 kg ha-1 from variety Star-2, followed by 3066.7 kg ha-1 from variety Th-120. Variety Sindh-1 produced the lowest seed cotton yield: 2577.8 kg ha1. However, variety Sindh-1 produced the highest seed cotton yield (3511.1) on May 23rd and the lowest yield (3133.3 kg ha-1) on May 16th. The 9th of May sowing date yielded the lowest seed cotton yield of 2429.6 kg ha-1. According to the experiment's findings, the yield of seed cotton varied among types, with variety Star-2 and 23rd May planting dates yielding higher yields than other varieties under other sowing dates.