Phosphorus Application Improves the Cotton Yield by Enhancing Reproductive Organ Biomass and Nutrient Accumulation in Two Cotton Cultivars with Different Phosphorus Sensitivity

Abstract

Phosphorus (P) plays a pivotal role in cotton by enhancing the reproductive growth and yield formation. Cotton cultivars vary greatly in response to P availability, especially under P-deficient conditions. So, we hypothesized that the increasing P level promotes the reproductive growth in cotton cultivars varying with P sensitivity. For this, two cotton cultivars, Lu-54 (sensitive to low P) and Yuzaomian-9110 (tolerant to low P), in response to three different P levels (P0: 0 (control), P1: 100, and P2: 200 kg P2O5 ha−1) were studied at 39, 52, 69, 83, and 99 days after transplanting during 2017 and 2018. The results revealed that the seed cotton yield was improved in P1 and P2 treatments by 23.9%–34.5% and 30.8%–52.3% in Lu-54, and 16.6%–25.6% and 20.6%–38.5% in Yuzaomian-9110 during 2017 and 2018, respectively. The accumulation of reproductive organ biomass was 21.0%–52.1% and 28.5%–56.8% higher in Lu-54 and 24.2%–56.8% and 34.8%–69.1% higher in Yuzaomian-9110 in P1 and P2 over the control, respectively. During the fast accumulation period, the average accumulation of N, P, K, and biomass across the years in P2 were recorded as 0.75, 0.6, 0.5, and 120.5 kg ha−1 d−1 in Lu-54, while they were 0.65, 0.5, 0.8, and 98.5 kg ha−1 d−1 in Yuzaomian-9110. Overall, a longer period, in terms of reproductive biomass accumulation, was recorded for Yuzaomian-9110 compared with Lu-54 in 2017 and vice versa across the 2018 growing season. The results suggested that increasing P rate improved yield, reproductive organ biomass, as well as nutrient accumulation in both cotton cultivars. However, low P-sensitive cultivar (Lu-54) was more responsive to P application compared with low P-tolerant cultivar.