Exploring influential plant traits for enhancing upland cotton yield under salt stress

Abstract

This research was conducted to explore genetic material that can yield better under salt stress conditions. The experiment was laid out using 27 upland cotton genotypes in a RCBD 2 factorial arrangement with two replications. Saline water (NaCl at 20 dS/m) was applied after satisfactory emergence was achieved. The crop was raised to maturity and data relating to yield, fiber quality and ionic traits were recorded. Analysis of variance showed significant variations in the germplasm. Plant height, bolls per plant, boll weight, GOT%, staple length, staple strength, K⁺ and K⁺/Na⁺ ratio under salinity stress showed a highly significant correlation with seed-cotton yield. The highest direct effect on seed-cotton yield per plant was exhibited by bolls per plant and boll weight. The results from the correlation and path coefficient analyses revealed that although the K⁺/Na⁺ ratio had a strong positively significant association with seed-cotton yield, its direct effect on the seed-cotton yield was negative and thus selection on the basis of K⁺/Na⁺ may not be fruitful. Hence, only indirect selection through bolls per plant and boll weight may be effective in increasing the seed-cotton yield per plant under salinity stress.

Key words： cotton; genotypic correlation; path coefficients; yield traits; fibre traits; ionic traits

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