The Effect of Different Amounts of Water and Nitrogen Fertilizer on Yield of Two Cotton Cultivars (Golestan and B 557)

Cotton is a plant that responds to the amount of irrigation water and irrigation time, and due to lack of water in Golestan province, the need for optimal use of water unit is more than ever before. This will not be achieved except through modern methods of surface irrigation or irrigation under pressure and appropriate management of irrigation and increasing water use efficiency.

This experiment was conducted as a split plot design in a factorial design with three replications at Hashem Abad Cotton Research Station. Physical and chemical parameters of soil such as soil texture, bulk density, moisture content of crop capacity and wilting point, soil salinity and soil acidity before cultivation were measured by sampling from two depths of 0.25 to 25 cm and 25 to 50 cm. Farm fertilizer requirement was calculated according to the results of the experiments. The distance of cotton cultivation during the studied surface was considered the same. Before irrigation was done due to soil moisture content. Planting two cotton cultivars was done randomly. During the growing season and before the first irrigation, a single-hinged rainwater system was implemented. During irrigation period, irrigation was carried out based on the water requirement of Plot i5 and irrigation continued on the basis of the water requirement of this plot to reach the farm capacity. During the growth period, the symptoms and the indicators of yield components included plant growth measurements, first flowering time, time of the first product, etc., and finally the yield was recorded. Different amounts of irrigation water treatments including rain irrigation, irrigation over water requirement as main plots and treatments of different amounts of nitrogen fertilizer including 0, 33, 66 and 100 percent fertilizer recommendation as well as cotton cultivars were considered as subplots.

The results showed that the highest yield (4362 kg / ha) was related to 4I treatment and the lowest yield was obtained from rain fed (without irrigation) with 3379 kg / ha. The yield of I2, I3, I4, I5 and I6 treatments was 2,2, 16,7, 29,1, 8,1 and 15/7 percent, respectively, than rain fed (I1). Among fertilizer treatments, the highest yield was related to unfermented fertilizer application, which was significantly different with treatments of 66% and 100% fertilizer requirement. The lowest yield was 66% fertilizer requirement. In a research year (2012) due to suitable rainfall in the growing season, cotton plants were well-grown, and any excess water or nitrogen fertilizer accelerated vegetative growth which ultimately led to a decrease in reproductive growth and Subsequently, performance declined. In terms of precocious percentage, rain and I4 treatments were the earliest and the shortest treatments. Different amounts of nitrogen fertilizer had no effect on premature percentage. The highest number of bolls per plant was related to I5 and I6 treatments, which difference was significant with I1 and I2 treatments, but not significant with I3 and I4 treatments. The amount of nitrogen fertilizer application from 0% to 100% of fertilizer requirement did not have a significant effect on the number of bolls per plant.

The yield of Golestan cultivar was 17.9% higher than that of B-557. Water use efficiency in rainfed and irrigation treatments was 1.51 and 0.81 kg / m 3 / ha, respectively. B was 557 earlier than Golestan cultivar. Two cotton cultivars called Golestan and 557 B were identical in number of bolls per plant. It is recommended to select Golestan cultivar as a basic cultivar pattern. In rainfed overwrought years, an irrigation can be done or watering is done in supplementary form.