The assessment of weed competition effect on growth and yield of cotton with use chemical and biological fertilizers

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate and compare the effects of N and P chemical fertilizers with biological N and P fertilizers on competition between cotton and weeds with split plot arrangement in a randomized complete block design with three replications during the years 2014 and 2015. The main plots consisted of two levels of weed management practices including weed free and weedy check. Sub plots had five treatments included integrated application of biological and chemical fertilizers:1-Control (Without fertilizer) 2-Urea+Triplesuperphosphate (TSP) 3-Nitroxin+50% urea+100% TSP 4-100% urea+Barvar2 +50% TSP 5-Nitroxin+Barvar2+50% urea+50% TSP. In the first year, control of weeds increased LAI and number of boll per plant to 34 and 22 percent, respectively and cotton yield increased by 67 percent in the first year and 50 percent in the second year. Fertilizer treatments had a significant effect on stem length, LAI, number of sympodial branches and boll per plant, and yield of cotton. Under weed interference condition, use chemical fertilizers alone reduced cotton growth and yield due to increasing competitive ability of weeds. But reducing urea consumption by half and replace it with nitroxin, increased cotton yield by 61% compared to the chemical fertilizer treatment due to increasing number of boll per plant. This result indicates that the use of biological fertilizers reduce the negative effects of chemical fertilizers and increase crop competitiveness against weeds