The effects of seed coating treatment on yield and yield components in some cotton (<i>Gossypium hirsitum</i> L.) varieties

Abstract

The use of delinted cotton seeds in cotton planting instead of fuzzy cotton seeds has spread recently. Cotton planting area of the world was 32,150,000 ha in 2003 - 2004. Approximately 45 - 50% of the planting seed in the world is delinted. This signifies that nearly 16,000,000 ha cotton area is planted by delinted cotton seed. In this study, coating fuzzy cotton seeds is proposed as an alternative to delintation. Coating makes fuzzy cotton seeds more suitable for the pneumatic spacing planter. Also, unlike delintation, sulphuric acid is not used for coating and this eliminates the problems associated with its usage such as seed loss, pollution and threats to human health. The results show that the cultivation of coated cotton seeds has no disadvantage regarding the agronomic and technological characteristics of cotton seed; coating may even improve the characteristics of the seeds. Also, no significant difference exists in terms of yield. Hence, seed coating has the potential to expand organic cultivation of cotton, as the coated seeds can be easily planted with pneumatic spacing drills and as organic seed procurement would be provided with the seed coating method.

Key words: Fuzzy cotton seed, seed coating, yield components.