Cotton Breeding In The Near Future

With the coming of Qingming Festival and cotton breeding, how to select seeds has become an urgent task. On the 27th, the reporter interviewed Yu Hongzhang, a cotton expert and senior agronomist of Hubei Province, about the confusion of cotton farmers in Hanchuan, Tianmen and Shayang.

Reporter: "the same cotton variety increased production that year, and then why decreased production?"

Yu Hongzhang: it's true that some cotton varieties launched by seed industry performed well in the first year, and the output was unstable in the second year, and the output was reduced in the third year. Many seed industry seed production are scattered in different farmers. In the first year, a small number of high-quality cotton seeds can be produced in a small number of farmers who are more responsible for seed production. After the scope of seed production can be expanded, there will be false phenomenon of inferior quality and adulteration. Some small seed industries even use F2 generation as F1 generation, which makes it difficult to ensure the purity and quality If the bud rate is not high and the stress resistance is not strong, the yield will naturally decrease. Therefore, the selection of cotton varieties should be large backbone seed industry cotton varieties, especially to select the provincial or national level approved famous cotton varieties, do not covet cheap selection of non approved parallel cotton varieties.

Reporter: "can the second generation cotton seed also be planted?"

Yu Hongzhang: Generally speaking, it is not recommended to use Hybrid F2 cotton seed or conventional cotton original seed second generation cotton seed in production. In order to save the cost, a small number of Hybrid F2 cotton varieties can be selected for some large households with cotton planting area of more than 100 mu under the premise of optimized management.

Reporter: "big boll cotton varieties can be high yield and good quality?"

Yu Hongzhang: big boll cotton varieties are not necessarily high yield and good quality. Some large boll cotton varieties have not passed the quality standard, or their characters are not stable. Some bolls weigh more than 8 grams, but the shell is thick, so it is not easy to pick up flowers. Although some bolls are large, but the lint percentage is very low, some bolls are large, but the fertilizer requirement is too high, so we can not blindly pursue large boll varieties. From the current cotton breeding level in China, the average boll weight of hybrid cotton is 6.1 ~ 6.5g, and conventional cotton is 5.5G ~ 6.0g, which is more in line with the reality and can be selected.

Reporter: "why can't some improved cotton varieties produce high yield?"

Yu Hongzhang: in order to ensure high yield, it is not enough to buy good varieties only. For example, when planting insect resistant cotton varieties, it is necessary to scientifically apply potassium fertilizer, to plant early maturing varieties must apply peach fertilizer, and for varieties with vigorous vegetative growth, delayed plant growth regulators should be applied in advance to control plant shape. Only by matching good varieties and good methods can cotton yield be promoted.