Evaluation of short duration a non Bt cotton variety (Co-17) under HDPS with different sowing dates during kharif season

This study investigates the evaluation of short duration non Bt cotton variety (CO-17) of 125 to 130 days duration with different sowing dates during Kharif seasons of the year 2021 and 2022 at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Palem, Southern Telangana Zone. The study was carried on the sandy loam soils. This experiment was taken up in Randomised Block Design with six sowing dates as treatments i.e., 20^th May, 5^th June, 20^th June, 5^th July, 20^th July and 5^th August and replicated four times. Observations on plant height (cm), days to 50% flowering, Number of monopodial branches, Number of sympodial branches, number of bolls per plant, boll weight, days to maturity and seed cotton yield per hectare were recorded. The pooled results of kharif 2021 and 2022 revealed that, significantly high seed cotton yield was recorded for 20^th May sowing with 1438 kg ha^-1 and was significantly superior over the other delayed sowings. Thus May 20^th sowing could be a preferential time for sowing of cotton variety (CO17) under rainfed alfisols.