Scheduling Irrigations on Cotton Based on the Crop Water Stress Index

The Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) was used to schedule irrigations on drip irrigated cotton research plots in Tucson and on eight acre furrow irrigated fields at the Marana and Maricopa Agricultural Centers. Scheduling irrigations when plots reached 0.30 CWSI units resulted in highest yields with 1403 lbs/acre cotton lint using 33.8 inches of water. The Marana and Maricopa fields yielded 1322 lb/acre on 28 inches and 1767 lb/acre on 58 inches of water, respectively