Egea and Nike - new brown cotton varieties

Abstract

Тhe new brown cotton varieties Egea and Nike were achievements in a new direction in the Bulgarian cotton breeding. They belong to a new generation of varieties with naturally coloured fibre of high ecological and economic effects. The most valuable characteristic of the two new varieties was their longer fibre than that of Izabell variety approved as a standard for the coloured cotton. According to data of the Executive Agency for Variety Testing, Approbation and Seed Control, Egea variety in fiber length (modal 23.32 mm and staple 26.83 mm) surpassed the standard variety Izabell by 1.35 mm and 1.57 mm, and Nike variety was superior by 0.37 mm and 0.54 mm. As a result of the longer fiber they also are distinguished by better spinning characteristic. With these two varieties significant progress in improving the fiber quality of coloured cotton by selection has been made. By earliness, seed cotton yield, fiber lint percentage and lint yield, the varieties Egea and Nike were equal to Izabell variety or slightly superior to it. Concerning productivity they were close to the white cotton standards, seed cotton yields were only by 1.3-1.5% less than Chirpan-539 (standard for productivity), and by 0.6-0.9% than Avangard-264 (standard for fiber quality). They were inferior in fiber lint percentage and lint yield by 7.3 kg/da (8.9%) and 7.8 kg/da (9.6%) to Chirpan-539 and by 2.2% and 2.9% to Avangard-264.