Investigation of Transplanting and Wet Planting Cotton in Increasing Water Use Productivity (Case Study: North Khorasan Province)

In the cotton planting region of northern Khorasan (Iran), the late stages of growing season of autumn crops (wheat) are overlapping with the early stages of spring crops (cotton). The urgent need of both plants for irrigation during this period (cotton need it for emergence and deployment, and wheat need it to develop its the most sensitive stage of growth, the flowering stage). Limitation in water rights of farmers causes them to postpone the irrigation of wheat and use it for cotton. This reduces the wheat yield in the region. Using any technique that help to conquer irrigation overlap of two crops during this period is vital without reducing the yields.  No need for cotton irrigation in the methods of wet planting of seeds and seedling planting can be used as a solution for this problem during this period. Accordingly, an experiment was carried out with three treatments and three replications in the form of strip plot in a randomized complete block design in the marginal lands of the Atrak River in the cropping season of 2016-2017. In each treatment, both wheat and cotton plants were cultivated. Treatments included: 1- Planting cotton as seed and cutting the irrigation of wheat (control). 2- Cotton wet planting and 3- Planting the seedlings of cotton after the last irrigation of wheat. Saved water in irrigation of the corresponding wheat was used in cotton wet planting and seedling planting. The results showed that cotton wet planting and seedling planting, can increase water utilization efficiency 47% compared to seed planting method