Potential of transplanting bare-root seedlings comparing with direct seeding in some Egyptian cotton cultivars

Abstract EN

Limitation of cultivated area and shortage of irrigation water are mainly challenges of Egyptian agriculture.

One of the possible solutions to improve the utilization efficiency of cultivated land, increase cotton cultivation area and guarantee the harvest of extra cutting from Egyptian clover is cotton transplanting.

Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the possibility of transplanting seedlings comparing with direct seeding methods and their effect on growth, yield and fiber quality for cotton cultivars Giza 92, Giza 94 and Giza 95.

Two field experiments were conducted in Agricultural Research and Experimental Station, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt during 2019 and 2020 seasons.

The experiments were laid out in a split-plot based on a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replicates.

A significant effect of transplanting seedlings compared with direct seeding, which increased plant height (10.46%), sympodial branches per plant (5.54%) and decreased 1st sympodial node position (14.17%), on the other hand, decreased open bolls per plant (7.04%), boll weight (2.90%), seed index (6.57%), seed cotton yield per plant (5.98%) and per feddan (6.79%) and most studied cotton fiber quality parameters; however, insignificant effect on total bolls per plant, lint percentage, fiber length and elongation.

Cotton cultivars recorded significant differences in most studied parameters, Whereas, Giza 95 as showed superiority in yield and yield components, while Giza 92 and Giza 94 in fiber quality parameters.

We need more researches for suitable germination growth medium, age of transplanting seedlings and economic feasibility to recommend transplanting as an alternative to direct seeding.