Incidence of Major Sucking Pests in Cotton as Influenced by Plant Spacing

The study was carried out at Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Lam, Guntur during kharif, 2024. An experiment was conducted using Bt cotton hybrid Siri NCS-8899 BG-II in two spacing regimes: normal spacing (105 × 60 cm; 15,873 plants/ha) and closer spacing (90 × 30 cm; 37,037 plants/ha). The mean leafhopper population was significantly higher under closer spacing (with peak incidence observed during the 44th standard meteorological week (SMW) Aphid incidence ranged from 2.72 to 15.02/3 leaves (normal) and 2.92 to 17.2/3 leaves (closer), with no significant differences. Thrips population ranged from 0.45 to 11.32/3 leaves (normal) and 0.72 to 13.34/3 leaves (closer), with significantly higher populations under closer spacing during the early vegetative stage (38th – 42nd SMW). Whitefly incidence ranged from 0.90 to 2.96 (normal) and 0.98 to 3.01/3 leaves (closer) with no significant difference between the two spacing regimes.