Water Stress Influence On Irrigated Cotton Yield During the 2010 Season In West Texas.

Cotton irrigation is a very important issue in West Texas. The objective of this work was to evaluate cotton yield in response to irrigation suspension periods. A field experiment was conducted at the Texas Tech New Deal Research farm during the 2010 season. The experimental design was “split-plot” and the treatments used were combinations of three irrigation strategies and eight varieties. The irrigation treatments consisted in irrigate during all periods, supply water with 3 weeks of irrigation interruption, and 6 weeks of irrigation suspension. The irrigation interruption periods started five weeks after the first flower was observed. During this trial, the higher yield was observed when the varieties FM9170B2F, DP0935B2RF and DP0912B2RF were not submitted to an irrigation suspension. The data obtained also suggests that for the average of the eight varieties studied, the irrigation management with a 3 week interruption caused a decrease in cotton yield of more than 640 kg ha^-1 compared to the fully irritated treatment, and a higher water stress (6 weeks of irrigation suspension) actually reduced the yield in nearly 170 kg ha^-1 more than compared to the 3 weeks stress. These results can be important in supporting management practices for irrigated cotton crops.