Response of Egyptian Cotton to application of Polyacrylamide Polymer and Growth Stimulants under Water Stress Conditions

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Cotton Physiology Department, Cotton Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt.

2 Crop Science Dept., Faculty of Agriculture, Menoufia Univ., Egypt

Abstract

Study aimed to evaluate the physiological and yield responses of Egyptian cotton (Gossypium barbadense, cv. Giza 97) to varying irrigation regimes and growth stimulants under water stress conditions. Field experiments were conducted at Sakha Agricultural Research Station, Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt, during the 2021 and 2022 growing seasons. Treatments included three irrigation regimes i.e. irrigation every 14 days (I1), 28 days (I2), and 28 days + Polyacrylamide PAM (I3) and four growth stimulants i.e. control, salicylic acid (SA), boron (B), and potassium (K). Results showed that delaying irrigation from 14 to 28 days significantly reduced physiological traits (chlorophyll, relative water content), squares and bolls production, yield components, and productivity, while increasing stress indicators such as proline content and catalase activity as well as total abscission. Adding PAM to plants that irrigated every 28 days had a significant positive role in alleviating water stress by minimizing these reductions and enhancing yield and water productivity. Growth stimulants have beneficial significant effects on physiological performance and yield, where SA and K were exchange ranks in achieving the best results. The interaction treatment, which involved irrigation every 14 days combined with spraying either SA (I1×SA) or K (I1×K), yielded the most favorable outcomes. Interaction treatments of (I3×SA) or (I3×K) achieved seed cotton yield/fed that is statistically equal to the combined treatment (I1×control), utilizing total water applied less by 28.10 and 32.28%. This means that (I3×SA) or (I3×K) were the most suitable combination treatments in case of limited irrigation water in salt-affected soil.

Keywords

Main Subjects