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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Florence, South Carolina » Coastal Plain Soil, Water and Plant Conservation Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #197672
Title: INVESTIGATING VARIABILITY FOR GENOTYPE RESPONSE TO SUPPLEMENTAL IRRIGATION IN COTTON

Author
item Campbell, Benjamin - Todd
item Bauer, Philip

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/25/2006
Publication Date: 11/12/2006
Citation: Campbell, B.T., Bauer, P.J. 2006. Investigating variability for genotype response to supplemental irrigation in cotton [abstract]. ASA-CSSA-SSSA 2006 International Meetings, November 12-16, 2006, Indianapolis, Indiana. 2006 CDROM.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: A major factor influencing the development of upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) cultivars and sustainable cotton production in the southeast USA is water availability, because of endemic, intermittent drought events occurring in the region resulting from shallow, coarse textured soils and irregular rainfall patterns. An understanding of cotton cultivar yield and fiber quality response to supplemental irrigation, applied to lessen the effects of intermittent drought events, is essential to establishing sustainable cotton production. In this study, a subset of the Pee Dee (PD) cotton germplasm collection was evaluated in split plot designs over 2004 and 2005 to measure the effect of supplemental irrigation on a number of agronomic and fiber quality traits important to cotton production systems. Overall, supplemental irrigation increased seed cotton yield, plant height, lint percent, lint yield, and bolls per square meter; while boll weight and seed index were decreased. Significant variation was detected among the subset of PD lines evaluated for seed cotton yield, lint percent, lint yield, seed index, bolls per square meter, micronaire, fiber length, fiber strength, and fiber uniformity. We detected six PD lines showing an increase to supplemental irrigation for plant height, three lines showing an increase for lint percent, six lines showing a decrease for boll weight, ten lines showing a decrease for seed index, two lines showing a decrease for fiber length, three lines showing a decrease for fiber strength, three lines showing a decrease for uniformity index, and four lines showing a decrease for micronaire. This study indicates the importance of comparing individual genotype response to supplemental irrigation for agronomic and fiber quality traits to efficiently target genotypes to irrigated or dryland production environments.