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Interactions among Irrigation and Nitrogen Fertility Regimes on Mid‐South Cotton Production
Author(s) -
Pettigrew W. T.,
Zeng L.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj13.0457
Subject(s) - lint , irrigation , agronomy , cultivar , human fertilization , fiber crop , dry matter , yield (engineering) , gossypium , environmental science , malvaceae , mathematics , biology , materials science , metallurgy
To maximize profits, cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.) producers must make the most efficient use of expensive production inputs, such as irrigation and N fertilization. Objectives for this research were to determine how cotton responded to varying levels of irrigation and N fertilization. Field studies were conducted from 2009 to 2012 at Stoneville, MS, using four cotton cultivars. Two soil moisture regimes (dryland and irrigated) and three N fertilization levels (0, 56, and 112 kg N ha −1 ) were imposed on these varieties. Dry matter partitioning, leaf chlorophyll (Chl) concentration, leaf Chl fluorescence, lint yield, yield components, and fiber quality data were collected on all the plots. All the cotton cultivars responded similarly to N fertilization and irrigation. Although cotton's growth responded to both N and irrigation, the level of the benefit from one of these inputs was dependent on the availability of the other component. The highest N fertility rate had higher leaf Chl levels and Fv/Fm fluorescence ratios. Lint yield did not respond to irrigation when no N had been applied. Similarly the lint yield N response was muted when the soil moisture was limited. These data will allow producers to make more informed irrigation and N input allocation decisions, apparently regardless of the cultivar grown.