Cotton Responses to Nitrophenolate-Based Stimulant: Effects of Foliar Application Rates on Yield and Fiber Quality

ABSTRACT

This study evaluated the effects of the nitrophenolate-based protein enhancer Chaperone? on yield and fiber quality of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) grown under two irrigated and two rain-fed growing conditions. Treatments included four foliar spray rates: 0.183, 0.365, 0.731, and 1.462 L ha^{? 1} applied at early bloom when plants had between 8 and 10 nodes above white flower. Results showed that Chaperone? applied at 0.365 L ha^{? 1} increased lint yields significantly (at 5% probability level) over the untreated check (UTC) in one of the two irrigated experiments and marginally (10% probability level) in the other irrigated experiment and one of the two rain-fed experiments, when water supply, during the rapid boll growth stage, was adequate. Yield increases in these experiments were related to increases in boll mass. Chaperone? also affected fiber quality properties, specifically, decreased micronaire values and increased fiber strength, but only in the highest yielding irrigated conditions and the lowest yielding rain-fed conditions.