PLANT POPULATION, NUTRIENT UPTAKE AND YIELD OF COTTON (GOSSYPIUM HIRSUTUM) HYBRIDS AS AFFECTED BY SPACING AND FERTILITY LEVELS UNDER RAINFED CONDITION

The field experiment consisted of  two crops geometry (S1-90 X 60 cm and S2- 60 X 60 cm), three cotton hybrids (V1-MLCH-318, V2-VBCH-2231 and PKV Hy-2) and three levels of NPK (F1-37.5 : 18.75 : 18.75, F2-50 : 25 : 25 and F3-62.5 : 31.25 : 31.25  kg N:P2O5:K2O/ha). Closer crop geometry of 60 X 60 cm significantly produced more plants population (271.51 ‘00’/ha and 242.77 ‘00’/ha at initial and harvest, respectively), lint yield (345 kg/ha), seed cotton yield (910 kg/ha) and stalk yield (1058 kg/ha) with uptake of N (40.39), P (14.78) and K (46.59 kg/ha) over wider crop geometry of 90 x 60 cm (S1). Among hybrids, MLCH-318 (V1) showed significantly superiority to VBCH-2231 (V2) and PKV Hy-2 (V3) in respect of lint yield (407 kg/ha), seed cotton yield (1034 kg/ha) and stalk yield (1054 kg/ha). MLCH-318 (V1)  when sown at crop geometry of 60 x 60 cm recorded the highest uptake of N (41.47 and 40.39), P (15.08 and 14.78) and K (48.01 and 46.59 kg/ha) with total uptake of NPK (104.56 and 101.76 kg/ha), respectively. The application of 62.5:31.25:31.25 N:P2O5:K2O/ha produced the  maximum lint yield (393 kg/ha), seed cotton yield (972 kg/ha), stalk yield (988 kg/ha) and recorded higher uptake of N (40.33), P (15.08), K (46.81 kg/ha) and total uptake of NPK (102.22 kg/ha). The interaction effect between hybrids and crop geometries was found significant.