Abstract
Cotton Leaf Curl Virus is a major threat to cotton production and spreading in Sindh after Punjab. It affects whole cotton plant which results in drastically low cotton productions. It has destroyed thousands of hectares. The trial was conducted at Sakrand (Sindh) during the year 2015, to evaluate the 100 exotic cotton germplasms against CLCUV, out of them 5 lines (USG15-2515, USG15-2551, USG15-2554, USG15-2555 and USG15-2556) were found resistant against CLCUV and 39 lines were highly tolerant, 53 tolerant and 3 susceptible in the CLCUV rating scale. The CLCUV data were recorded on 30, 60, 90 and 120 days after planting. The analysis of variance indicated sufficient genetic diversity among the genotypes. Among the lines USG-15-2584 produced maximum number of bolls per plant (56.3) followed by USG15-2592 (53.6). Maximum boll weight obtained by USG15-2570 (5.1g). The maximum ginning outturn ginned by line US15-2551 (37.7%) followed by USG15-2596 (37.5%) and USG15-2564 (37.4%). For seed cotton yield per plant highest yield was produced by USG15-2595 (77.8g), whereas USG15-2588 was ranked second for seed cotton yield (74.4g). USG15-2566 gave finest fiber (3.0 µg inch-1 ). Whereas USG15-2554 produced maximum fiber strength (32.3 G tex-1 ). For staple length USG15-2554 and USG15-2585 measured long staple (31.4mm) followed by USG15-2588 and USG15-2555 which were (30.0mm).
