Influence of dates of sowing on incidence of pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during Kharif 2021 at AICRP on Cotton, Chamarajanagara to investigate the influence of dates of sowing on the incidence of pink bollworm (PBW) in cotton. The experiment design was RCBD. Bt cotton (Puli) was sown on different dates of sowing starting from 2nd fortnight of March 2021 to 1st fortnight September 2021 at 15 days intervals. The crop sown during 1st fortnight of May recorded significantly lowest PBW incidence which is evidenced by lowest number of PBW larvae (4.25/20 green bolls), green boll damage (14.48%), open boll damage at harvest (13.25%) and higher seed cotton yield (1638 kg/ha). However, sowing of cotton at 2nd fortnight of May recorded on par with respect yield and PBW damage when sown on 1st fortnight of May. It was observed that as the sowing dates advances, the incidence of PBW was increased with lesser yields.