MULTAN: Agriculture experts have advised cotton farmers to adopt a comprehensive strategy by taking proper care at all stages of growth to get sizable production of good quality cotton.
In a release issued by media liaison unit of Punjab Agriculture Department, experts said that farmers should maintain plant population at prescribed level, perform trimming, remove weeds, take steps to counter diseases and enemy pests and apply water on time to get better cotton yield.
Experts said that maintaining nine inches to one foot distance between plants was mandatory so that plants get enough space to grow. Plant population be maintained at 17000-23000 per acre and plant to plant distance should be 9-12 inches. In case of higher than the prescribed number of plants, the plants grow more vertically than horizontally and number of fruit bearing branches become low or they become shorter in size, experts warned. Moreover, sunlight also fails to have access to lower parts of plants and pesticides spray also fails to reach there.
Experts said that farmers should perform plants trimming and complete this process within 20-25 days after sowing to maintain plant population at desired level. Lower than prescribed plant population was also not advisable as it would give lower yield.
First trimming be applied when plants attain height of six inches and second trimming be performed when their height reaches twelve inches.
Experts said trimming is necessary as it keeps the plant population at desired level. They directed to maintain uniform plant to plant distance, and to remove diseased plants keeping only the healthy plants. The experts said that after trimming, farmers should perform hoeing to remove weeds.
