BREEDING AND GENETICS Effect of Cultivar Blends on Fiber Quality, Lint Yield, and Gross Return of Upland Cotton in West Texas

During the years 2001 and 2002, field trials were conducted to study the effect of blending dif-ferent cotton cultivars on fiber quality, lint yield, and lint yield stability across environments. Four commercial cultivars were used. Two cultivars developed by Texas Tech University, ‘Raider 271’ and ‘Raider 202’, have excellent fiber quality but lower lint yield potential. Two other cultivars, Delta and Pine Land ‘DP 2379 ’ and Associated Farmers Delinting ‘AFD-Explorer’, have lint yield potential but lower fiber quality. The cultivars had similar seed sizes and were combined by volume (volumet-ric), pairing the high fiber quality cultivars with the high yielding cultivars in five different ratios