Objective To investigate the effects of different plant and row spacing configurations on the growth and development and yield formation of machine-harvested long-staple cotton, and to screen high-yield and high-quality cultivation patterns suitable for mechanized harvesting in Xinjiang.
Methods Three plant and row spacing configurations (R3, R4 and R6) were set up to explore the differences in growth duration, morphological indices, dry matter accumulation, yield components and fiber quality of machine-harvested long-staple cotton under different configurations.
Results The growth duration of the R3 pattern was prolonged by 3.00 d compared with that of the R6 pattern. Higher plant height and first-node-position were observed under R3 and R4 configurations. The R6 pattern showed better performance in fruit-branch number as well as bud, flower and boll number across the whole growth period. The duration of rapid dry-matter accumulation was the longest under the R6 pattern, reaching 49.42 d, which contributed to the late-stage crop population dry matter accumulation of long-staple cotton. Meanwhile, the R6 pattern exhibited better performance in single-boll weight, lint percentage, seed-cotton yield, lint yield and fiber quality; the lint yield of the R6 pattern increased by 13.41% compared with the R3 pattern.
Conclusion Among the three plant-and-row-spacing configurations, the R6 pattern, i.e. wide-narrow row spacing of (66 + 10) cm with plant spacing of 12 cm, presented comprehensive superior performance for long-staple cotton. It is a machine-harvesting configuration suitable for the growth and developmental characteristics of long-staple cotton in Xinjiang.
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