Abstract
A field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of intermittent waterlogging on the nutrient status of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum cv. Deltapine 61). The crop was grown in a sloping plot of soil in which a gradient of water-table depth ranging from 0.04m above to 0.60m below the soil surface was established during two periods of waterlogging in mid summer and early autumn. The first waterlogging lasted 8 days; the second lasted 16 days.
Dry matter increases were less for severely waterlogged plants than for plants with well-aerated root systems during the first flooding, but the increases were similar during the second. Waterlogging impaired uptake of most nutrients by young plants in the first flooding, but had much less effect on nutrient uptake by older plants in the second. Waterlogging consistently reduced concentrations of P and K in the petioles and laminae of young fully-expanded leaves, and severely waterlogged plants were deficient in these nutrients by the end of the first flooding. Mn did not accumulate to toxic levels in waterlogged plants. During each flooding, waterlogged plants gained in total content of all nutrients studied, but the gains of each nutrient, except for Na, were proportionally smaller than for well-aerated plants. Fluxes of K-, Cl- and HPO4- ions in xylem sap exuded from stumps of detopped plants which had been waterlogged were lower than those from plants with well-aerated root systems. Seed cotton yields and concentrations of nutrients in mature bolls were not affected by the two periods of waterlogging. It is concluded that although intermittent waterlogging induced nutrient stress in cotton plants, especially for P and K in young plants before flowering, they recovered with no detrimental effect upon yield.
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Hocking, P.J., Reicosky, D.C. & Meyer, W.S. Effects of intermittent waterlogging on the mineral nutrition of cotton. Plant Soil 101, 211–221 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02370647
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02370647