Yield and fibre quality of cotton cultivars as affected by the build-up of sodium in the soils with sustained sodic irrigations under semi-arid conditions

Cotton is commonly grown in many arid and semi-arid regions of the world having sodic ground waters. A field plot study was, therefore, conducted for 2 years to study the effect of sustained sodic irrigation on yield and fibre quality of two hirustum cotton cultivars (F-505 and F-846) and one arborium cultivar (LD-327). The exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) of 0–30 cm soil under sustained canal water (CW) irrigation treatment was 3.5 whereas long-term irrigations (for more than 10 years) with sodic waters having residual sodium carbonate (RSC) of 5, 10 and 15 me l−1 resulted in ESP bulid-up of 16.4, 39.6 and 56.2, respectively. These sodic waters were used for irrigation in the respective plots, for both years of the study. High ESP of the soil decreased the growth (in terms of plant height) and yield of all the three cotton cultivars. The rate of decline in plant height at 50, 80 and 140 days of sowing (DAS) was maximum in F-505 and minimum in F-846. Compared with CW treatment, relative seed-cotton yield under 16.4, 39.6 and 56.2 ESP levels obtained with respective sodic water treatments for 2 years were 99, 70 and 69%, respectively in F-846, 101, 46 and 29%, respectively in F-505 and 98, 67 and 49%, respectively in LD-327. Similar trends were observed in case of boll number per square metre and boll weight. The cultivar F-846 produced heavier bolls than the other two cultivars under ESP levels of 56.2 obtained under RSC15 treatment which helped this cultivar to perform relatively better. The harmful effect of sodic waters on fibre quality (2.5% span length, micronaire value and bundle strength) were also not observed in the case of F-846. A slight deterioration in fibre quality was, however, observed in cultivars F-505 and LD-327 at an ESP of 56.2 in the soil.