The Effect of Compost and Vermicompost as Biological Fertilizers on Qualitative and Quantitative Traits of Cotton

Biological fertilizers have a potential role to increase soil nutrient and reduce dependence on expensive chemical fertilisers. Present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of municipal compost and vermicompost on qualitative and quantitative traits of cotton (Varamin cultivar) at 2015-2016 cropping year. The experiment was based on completely randomized block design with 10 treatments at three replications in research field station of Agricultural Jihad and Natural Resources of Tehran Province at Varamin region, Iran. In this research the factors like plant height, vegetative and reproductive branch number, and number of bolls, 20-bolls weight at the harvesting time, cotton yield were evaluated. The results of analysis of variance showed that compost and vermicompost as biological fertilizers significantly affected whole studied traits (P<0.05). Application of biological fertilizers resulted to increase in plant height, vegetative and reproductive branch number, and number of bolls, 20-bolls weight and cotton yield. Among treatments, vermicompost application (20 ton/ha) had highest bolls number and 40 ton/ha vermicompost resulted to highest plant height (149.78 cm) and reproductive branches (26 branches) and 20-bolls weight. In the most of studied traits, vermicompost treatment had highest amounts. Totally, the results of present study showed that application of compost and vermicompost fertilizers could have efficient contribution in increasing efficiency of cotton plant production.