In 1984,1985, and 1986, leaf water potentials of irrigated cotton declined markedly as the crop approached cutout. Midday transpiration rates also declined, indicating a water-stressed condition. The water stress occurred despite the fact that measurements were made only when the soil was fully charged with water. In 1986, plant hydraulic conductances were estimated. The conductance was high early in the season, declined to a low value during cutout, and increased during regrowth to the high value of the early season. It is suggested that root length and efficiency of water uptake, or both, decrease during boll filling as most assimilates are partitioned into the bolls. Daily drip irrigation prevented this susceptibility to stress during boll filling. In 1984 and 1986, drip irrigation decreased the length and severity of cutout, resulting in an increased boll load at the end of the season.

The plant regulators XE-1019 and PIX were tested at the Maricopa and Marana Agricultural Centers. Few yield responses were found in 1987, apparently due to the short stature of the crop at both locations.

Two new Dropp formulations show promise as cotton defoliants. In addition to excellent leaf drop, most squares, flowers, and young bolls were also shed, removing the food source for late season insects.

Ethephon was applied to Deltapine 55 cotton with 35% of the bolls open. Ethephon significantly increased the percent first pick yield of the cotton. There was no significant difference in the total yield.

PIX was applied to long and short staple cotton in 5, 10 and 20 gallons of water in an incomplete factorial design involving 0.5, 1 and 2 pints of the product per acre. Plant heights were significantly shortened and the percent of lint obtained in the first picking was significantly increased when Piz was applied on the short staple cotton. No statistically significant yield differences were observed between the volumes of dilution or the rates of application for either long or short staple cotton. A factor underlying the experiment was that the monsoon rains. They kept the surface of the ground moist and the plants looking good; however, the subsurface moisture had apparently been depleted, and the plants were under some stress. This stressed condition offset what good the FIX might have done for yield.

Experiments were conducted in 1987 and 1988 to determine whether hormonal changes may be involved in the decreases in growth and boll retention commonly referred to as cutout. Nitrogen deficiency decreased the auxin content and growth of fruiting branches. The auxin contents of fruiting branches, squares, and bolls decreased during the season as the plants entered cutout. ABA in bolls increased slightly, but the ABA content of squares and fruiting branches showed no consistent changes. The results indicate that decreases in auxin (IAA) may be involved in cutout.

Four field experiments were conducted in Arizona in 1988 to evaluate the effects of various multiple application treatment combinations of PIX on the growth and development, as well as the lint yields of both upland and pima cotton. Plant height was significantly reduced (P ≤ 0.05) in some FIX treatments in comparison to the checks for short periods of time after the treatment applications. Those effects did not persist, nor did they translate into any significant positive differences among treatments in terms of lint yields for either of the upland or pima experiments.

A field study was conducted at the Marana Agricultural Center to evaluate the effectiveness of growth regulators on Deltapine 90 cotton. The Pix treatment yielded significantly higher than the check and any of the other treatments.

Water deficit increases boll shedding. Large squares, however, are much less likely to shed, possibly because they contain high concentrations of free and total auxin (indole-3-acetic acid or IAA). Our previous research indicated that much of this IAA disappears by the time the squares open as flowers and the IAA content remains low for about four days after anthesis. If water deficit decreases the IAA content, or increases the ABA conten4 of squares and flowers, then water deficit before flowering could have a carry-over effect and increase the shedding rate of young bolls that subsequently develop from them. In field plots, water deficit increased the ABA content of flowers as much as 66 %. Water deficit first decreased and later increased the concentrations of free and total IAA in squares that were analyzed about three days before anthesis. Flowers contained much less IAA than squares. Despite pronounced effects of water deficit on the IAA content of squares it is unlikely that it had any carry-over effect on the free IAA content of young bolls that subsequently developed from them. Water deficit slightly increased the total IAA content of flowers, but had no effect on their free IAA. Because water deficit increased the ABA content but did not decrease the IAAA content of flowers, any carry-over effect of water deficit on young boll shedding might have been from changes in ABA but not from changes in IAA before the young-boll stage.

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