Investigation of Foreign Cotton Cultivars Value of Cultivation and Use (VCU) in South Khorasan Province

IntroductionCrop cultivars are the most important factor in crop optimum quantity and quality products achievement and cotton is one of the most industrial crops. Objectives of new cotton cultivars introduction are yield increase, earliness, and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Despite the improvement and introduction of numerous new cotton cultivars in Iran in recent years, new foreign cotton cultivars have also been registered, introduced, and commercialized for the first time in Iran. Therefore, the cultivation of new foreign cotton cultivars that show early maturity, high-yielding, and have good fiber quality is included in projects of the Ministry of Jihad of Agriculture for cotton cultivation development. This research was carried out to evaluate and compare the seed cotton yield and its components and some fiber qualitative characteristics of new cotton with thought VCU trial in South Khorasaد province in Birjand Mohammadieh agriculture research station to introduce and commercialize these cultivars.Materials and MethodsValue of Cultivation and Use (VCU) of six cotton new Turkey origin cultivars including Carisma, Lydia, PG2018, BA440, Flash, and Edesa cultivars in comparison with Varamin and Khordad cultivars as the control in South Khorasan province (Birjand- Mohammadieh agriculture research station) evaluated during 2016-2017 and 2017-218 crop years by determination of seed cotton yield and its components (boll number per plant and one boll weight), earliness and fiber quality characters including fibers percent, length, fitness, flexibility, strength, uniformity, yellowness and brightness and Verticellium wilt tolerance.Results and DiscussionCombined analysis of variance in time showed that seed cotton yield, boll number, boll weight, length, fineness, elasticity, strength, uniformity, and reflectance of fibers showed year×cultivar were significant for boll number and fiber reflectance. Also, seed cotton yield, boll weight, and fiber uniformity in the first year were more than in the second year and Varamin and Khordad control cultivars had more boll numbers in the second year. The Varamin control cultivar had the finest fibers and the Lydia foreign cultivar and the Varamin control cultivar had the most and lowest fiber elasticity respectively. Lydia foreign cultivar having 33.55 and Carisma having 29.1375 gr/tex had the most and lowest strength respectively. The most and lowest fiber reflectance belonged to the Lydia foreign cultivar and Varamin control cultivar in the first year respectively. PG2018 foreign cultivar and Varamin control had the most and lowest gin turn out respectively. Varamin and Khordad control cultivars had the lowest and the most fiber yellowness. Varamin control cultivar having 5.720 Lydia foreign cultivar having 5.645 tons per hectare and Carisma foreign cultivar having 4.625 tons per hectare had the lowest seed cotton yield. The most boll weight belonged to the Varamin control cultivar and Lydia foreign cultivar having 5.720 and 5.645 gr respectively. Varamin and Khordad control cultivars were the late early and earliest maturity cultivars having 100 and 87 days from planting to full boll opening among the studied cultivars. Also, BA440 and Lydia foreign cultivars were the most tolerant and the most sensitive to Verticillium wilt cultivars.        ConclusionAccording to the results, the control cultivars Varamin and Khordad outperformed the studied foreign cultivars in terms of seed cotton yield, yield components, and earliness. Additionally, among the six new foreign cotton cultivars evaluated in this research, Lydia exhibited superior characteristics, including seed cotton yield, boll weight, and several fiber quality attributes such as fiber strength and reflectance. Moreover, Lydia demonstrated a high tolerance to Verticillium wilt. Based on these findings, we recommend Lydia as a suitable choice for commercial cotton cultivation in South Khorasan province and similar regions.