ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
This article is part of the Research TopicPlant Physiological and Mechanistic Responses to Saline–Alkaline SoilsView all 3 articles
Optimising irrigation strategies to improve soil water-salt distribution characteristics and enhance the cotton emergence rate of "dry sowing and wet emergence"
Provisionally accepted
- 1Xinjiang Agricultural University, Ürümqi, China
- 2Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi, China
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Introduction: In arid saline-alkali regions, the application of the water-saving technique "dry sowing and wet emergence" is limited by unclear water-salt distribution patterns. This study hypothesized that optimized irrigation strategies could improve soil water-salt distribution and enhance seedling emergence rates. Methods: A two-year split-plot field experiment was conducted in Xinjiang during 2024-2025. The main plots consisted of irrigation frequency: P1 (single drip irrigation on the first day after sowing) and P2 (two drip irrigations on the first and eighth days after sowing). The subplots varied in total irrigation volume: W1 (15 mm), W2 (30 mm), and W3 (45 mm). Soil moisture content, salinity, distribution uniformity, desalination rate, and emergence rate during the seedling stage were monitored. Results: Under the same irrigation frequency, the W3 treatment significantly increased soil moisture content and reduced salinity in the 0-20 cm soil layer compared to W1 and W2, thereby enhancing the desalination rate. Under the same irrigation volume, the P2 treatment exhibited higher soil moisture content and lower salinity at 12 days after sowing than P1, with a 14.39% increase in emergence rate. Under synergistic regulation, the P2W2 treatment demonstrated the optimal comprehensive performance, improving water distribution uniformity by 1.05–6.28%, increasing the desalination rate by 15.62–32.27%, and boosting the emergence rate by 5.79–13.91%. The emergence rate showed a significant positive correlation with water distribution uniformity (R²=0.83) and a significant negative correlation with salinity uniformity (R²=0.82). Critical water-salt thresholds for ensuring emergence were established: maintaining soil moisture content between 18.36% and 19.82% and keeping soil salinity below 3.65 g/kg in the 0–20 cm layer can ensure a stable emergence rate above 85%. Discussion: Optimizing irrigation strategies (applying 30 mm of water in split applications on the first and eighth days after sowing) improved the water-salt distribution in the 0–20 cm soil layer by enhancing water retention and promoting salt leaching, thereby increasing cotton emergence rates. This study provides a theoretical and practical foundation for water-saving irrigation and water-salt regulation in cotton fields in southern Xinjiang.
Keywords: dry sowing and wet emergence, Irrigation frequency, irrigationvolume, Seedling emergence rate, Soil salinity, soil water content
Received: 08 Dec 2025; Accepted: 06 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Zhang, Wu, Zhang, Wang, Zhang, Liu, Wang and Tang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Qiuxiang Tang
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