Selection and introduction of high yield and early cotton cultivars from advanced cultivars in Ardabil province

Cotton is one of the world’s most important industrial products, grown for fiber and oilseeds. The evaluation of agronomic traits, especially early maturity and yield in cotton, is valuable and can be used to select better varieties. The purpose of this research is to obtain early and high-yielding varieties in Ardebil province.

In this study, 35 cotton cultivars and genotypes were evaluated for early maturity and yield in two consecutive years (2018-2019) in a three replicate randomized complete block design at the Moghan Agricultural Research Station.

The results showed that percentage of earliness and seed cotton traits were significantly affected by plots and varieties over two years. Among the varieties, the highest seed cotton of the first crop seed cotton and total seed cotton was 3454 kg/ha and 5431 kg/ha observed in the variety Shayan, while the highest second crop seed cotton and the earliness percentage were 2323 kg/ha and 74%. in the avant-garde variety. Based on the cluster analysis according to the Ward method, cotton varieties were divided into three different clusters. In cluster 1 were the varieties K8801, Sahel, Bakhtegan, Khorshid, Mehr, K8802, BC244, SKSH249, Avangard, Opal, N2G80, SKT133, Khordad, Sajedi, GKTB113, Latif, NSKB23, NSK847 and Varamin, in cluster 2 were Sk- G (A-4), Shirpan 603, O10, Tabladila, Belizovar, Shirpan 533, Tashkent, Olatn and 4-s4 varieties, and in Cluster 3 were Nazili, No. 228, No. 200, B557, Armaghan, Golestan and Shayan varieties. Cluster 2 cultivars were the best in terms of earliness and cluster 1 cultivars were the best in terms of first-pick seed-cotton, second-pick seed-cotton and total seed-cotton. Third cluster cultivars excelled in seedcotton.

Evaluation of the results showed a wide range of variability in terms of early maturity and seedcotton in the studied cultivars. Among the cultivars studied, Avangarde genotype was better in terms of early maturity, Shayan cultivar in terms of first harvesting and total seedcotton. Therefore, Avangarde genotype and Shayan cultivar can be recommended for Moghan region.