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Breeding Cottons for Conventional and Late-Planted Production Systems

USDA-ARS and Clemson Univ., P. O. Box 3039, Florence, SC, 29502-3039
Dep. of Experimental Statistics, Clemson Univ., SC 29634

^* Corresponding author.

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) growers in South Carolina are replacing some of their soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] hectareage planted after wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) with cotton. A breeder must decide whether a small but expanding hectareage of late-planted (LP) cotton will require a breeding scheme separate from one for the conventional (CN) full-season production system. The objective of this study was to assess selection strategies that will result in cottons with improved lint yield and fiber quality for CN and LP production systems. Twenty-five unselected Pee Dee cotton genotypes, along with a full-season and an early maturing cultivar, were evaluated in a 2-yr experiment conducted at Florence, SC, in two production systems: CN, planted approximately the first week of May, and LP, planted 8 June. Lint yield, fiber, and spinning properties were determined. Significant (P < 0.05) genotypic variation existed for all traits, but there was no significant genotype x production system interaction. Heritability of each trait plus the genetic correlation between production systems was used to compare predicted and observed direct and correlated response in each production system. Predicted gain in LP yield when selection was conducted in the CN production system was a 2.1% increase in the population mean compared with a 3.1 % observed response. Selection for 2.5% span length and yarn strength in the CN system resulted in gains in both production systems. Antagonistic genetic correlations between some of the fiber traits and lint yield will make concurrent improvements in both production systems difficult. Use of a low selection intensity in the CN production system in the initial round of replicated yield testing was found to be an efficient method to improve lint yield or yarn strength.

Received for publication April 1, 1994.