Acala and Pima Cotton Responses to Subsurface Drip Irrigation: Water Use, Plant Water Relations, and Yield

R.B. Hutmacher, C.J. Phene, K.R. Davis, and T.A. Kerby


 
ABSTRACT

The response of two Acala cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) varieties and one Pima (G. barbadense L.) variety to combinations of three rates of subsurface drip irrigation and different periods (growth stages) of deficit irrigation were investigated in 1991 and 1992 in a clay loam soil in the western San Joaquin Valley of California. Irrigation application rates were 60%, 80% or 100% of estimated crop evapotranspiration (ET(c)), with treatments ranging from full-season 60%, 80% or 100% ET(c) applications to progressive reductions in applied water during flowering or boll-development periods. Due to deep root development and high soil water storage capacity, mid-afternoon leaf water potentials of even the 60% ET(c) treatments did not fall below -2.0 MPa until the last 30 days of the irrigation season. In both years, the increases in lint yields as ET(c) exceeded 650 to 700 mm were quite small (7% or less), although some differences across years and varieties were found. Pima yields were generally unaffected as ET(c) exceeded 700 mm.



Reprinted from 1993 Proceedings Beltwide Cotton Conferences pp. 1221 - 1224
©National Cotton Council, Memphis TN

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Document last modified Sunday, Dec 6 1998