Department of Agronomy, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar - 125 004, India.
Foliar spray of specific sample of expiry-date monocrotophos on flowering hirsutum cotton plants @ 5 mill induced the maximum adverse effect on plant height, swelling in stem, number of affected leaves and branches, dry matter accumulation, total number of bolls, number of opened bolls per plant and seed cotton yield both per plant and per ha. 2,4-D@ 5 g/ha and expiry-date dimethoate@4 ml/l injured these characters of cotton plants in descending order of magnitude. Clipping followed by foliar spray of ZnSO4 (0.5% +0.25% CaO) was found to be the most effective treatment for alleviating the plants phytotoxicity induced by 2, 4-D and expiry-date dimethoate. Plants did not recover till harvest by any of the seven remedial treatments under expiry-date monocrotophos.
