COMPARISON BETWEEN COTTON PLANTING BY SEED AND ROOT CUTTINGS

Abstract

Two field experiments were carried out at the experimental Farm Faculty of Agriculture, Saba Bacha, Alexandria University during 1994 and 1997 seasons to study the effect of planting treatments (direct seeding and root cuttings) and four nitrogen fertilizer levels (0, 35, 70 and 105 kg N/Fad.) under four spaces between hills (20, 30, 40 and 50 em.) on the yield, yield components, and fiber quality in the cotton plant.

The present work was designed to study the potentiality of cotton propagation vegetatively by root stem cuttings to shorten the cotton season in order to save or minimize the production cost and to allow growing cotton after full winter crops on the same land in addition, saving of cotton seed, assure varietal purity, producing hybrid cotton, reducuing cotton loss by early and late insects finally, production of seed cotton yield earlier.

In the first season (1994): The root-stem cuttings of Giza 75 cultivar were taken from field of cotton after the second picking at the end of November 1993 length cuttings was about 40 em. Root stem cuttings were arranged in bundles contained 100 cuttings and stored underground up side down, cuttings were watered immediately and naintained at suitable moisture during storage underground by watering every 21 days to keep cuttings viability, and covered with pure moist sand until sowing date in the next season.