Polyethylene mulching for cotton based cropping system

A new cultivation technique of growing cotton under polyethylene mulching in raised bed was standardized for cotton crop. The raised beds were formed as 13.5 m X 1.2 m with 30cm irrigation channel on all around the beds for irrigation. The cotton crop was grown@ 2 rows/bed at 60 cm apart. Fifty percent N and K fertilizers and full P fertilizers were given as basal before spreading the polythene sheets. The remaining N and K were given as two equal splits at flowering and boll development stages. In the irrigation channel, green gram was grown as intercrop. After the picking of cotton Kapas, the cotton stalks were cut below the cotyledon leaves and without disturbing the layout,
fresh punchings were made at 5 cm away from cotton rows and sowing of zero tilled rotation maize was attempted.

• The yield enhancement due to polymulching was 2.32 fold in cotton and 2.87 fold in maize.
• The green gram intercrop grown between two mulched raised beds of cotton yielded 490 kg of dried grains/ha.
• Among different colours evaluated silver colour out yielded other colours both for cotton and maize.
• The water use efficiency due to polyfilm ranged from 42.7 to 53..6 kg/ha as compared to 23.1 kg/ha under no mulching.