Physiological Manipulation of Bt Cotton Morphoframe by using Ethylene: A response of Cotton to early square removals

A plant type with a good morphoframe would sustain more boll load with synchronous boll development and boll burst.In Bt cotton,the plant morphoframe doesn’t develop fully due to retention of early stage squares.In an attempt to improve Bt plant morphoframe through removing early squares,so a field experiment was carried out at the Main Cotton Research Station,NAU, Surat during the Kharif season of year 2008-09,to study “Physiological Manipulation of Bt Cotton Morphoframe by using Ethylene.”20 treatment combinations were taken, consisting of 5 hybrids of Cotton (viz. RCH 2 Bt,JKCH 99 Bt,NCEH 2R Bt,Mallika Bt and non-Bt G.Cot.Hy.10) and 2 concentrations of Ethylene(i.e. 30 and 45 ppm) and one time hand removal of squares besides untreated control.Square removal treatments were applied at square initiation(at 45-50 DAS) with the objective of study the temporal and spatial distribution of fruiting forms in Bt and conventional cotton hybrid and to understand the consequence of altered sink activity on physiology,growth,yield and quality of cotton plant.The response of Cotton to square removal was assessed by measuring various growth,yield and quality contributing characters.

Harish S. Thakare has obtained his M.Sc.degree in Plant Physiology from NAU,Navsari in 2010, presently doing Ph.D in Plant Physiology from Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari,(India).Dr. V. Kumar (Ph.D), Head of Main Cotton Research Station, NAU., Surat (India). He has worked in different project in the field of Cotton and Plant Physiology.