Field experiment was conducted for two years from 2005 and 2006 on deep black soil of the Main Cotton Research Station, Navsari Agricultural University, Surat, Gujarat to find out the response of protective irrigation at critical growth stages of cotton. Pooled data indicated that seed cotton yield significantly increased when cotton was irrigated at flowering and at boll development stage (1692 kg ha−1 followed by irrigation at IW/CPE = 0.8 (1660 kg ha−1) compared to rainfed control (1222 kg ha−1) as evident from yield attributes, particularly number of bolls/plant. Yield of seed cotton increased in ordered of 38.5 and 35.8 per cent with irrigation at flowering and at boll development (T5) and irrigation at 0.8 IW/CPE ratios (T8), respectively over rainfed control (T1). The highest net income of Rs. 18964 ha−1 and B:C ratio were obtained with same treatments. However, quality parameters of cotton were not affected by different protective irrigation treatments. Water use efficiency was higher with protective irrigation (one) at any growth stage.
Protective irrigation, critical growth stages, seed cotton yield, water use efficiency
