Effects of the superokra leaf gene on cotton growth, yield, and quality

Abstract

No significant lint or seed cotton yield differences were found between a normal leaf cultivar of cotton and its near-isogenic superokra leaf counterpart in three experiments over three seasons at Kimberley Research Station in north-western Australia. There were also no significant interactions for lint yield of the two lines with variations in inter-row spacing and nitrogen application. Differences in quality between the two were also slight and of no commercial importance.

The superokra leaf gene, however, caused earlier maturity and decreased production of leaf and stem tissue. Biologically superokra leaf was more efficient, with a greater production of seed cotton per unit of leaf tissue than for the normal leaf.

Superokra leaf led to increased difficulty of weed control in conventional 1-metre cotton culture, but it appeared a desirable factor to transfer to cultivars bred for narrow-row high density cotton.