Evaluation of the Productivity Potential of Contemporary G. arboreum Cotton Genotypes on Vertic Haplustepts under Rainfed Conditions

Gossypium arboreum L. (desi cotton) possesses several useful traits like high ginning percentage tolerance to drought and salinity, make more suitable for cultivation under low input conditions. Apart from being more resilient to climate change and the low cost of cultivation, the availability of new varieties with excellent fibre quality and good locule retention makes desi cotton more attractive andremunerative to farmers. A field experiment was conducted during the Kharif season of 2019-20 to evaluate the productivity potential of some promising contemporary G. arboreum genotypes and understand their response to sowing dates and planting density under rainfed conditions under dry sub-humid bio-climate.The soil was clayey in texture, moderately alkaline, moderately shallow, 60 cm in-depth, and is classified as a clayey, smectitic hyperthermic family of Vertic Haplustepts. Results indicated that the sowing date had a significant influence on seed cotton yield, days to first flower and boll weight. Plant density had a significant effect on boll weight, plantheight, and boll number m-2 but not on seed cotton yield. The genotypes differed significantly with respect to days to first flower, plant height, boll number m-2, boll weight and seed cotton yield. Genotypes PA-528 and PA-812 were the highest yielders. Genotypes PA-812 and PA- 760 were superior in terms of fibre quality. A delay in sowing by 15 days significantly reduced the yield of G. arboreum cultivarsby 142 kg ha-1. A significant interaction observed between plant density and genotypes necessitates a need to evaluate the elite G. arboreum cultivars at specific plant density to exploit their productivity potential.