Abstract
Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is one of the major fiber crops. Its production is under threat due to scarcity of water resources under a changing climatic scenario. Limited water availability also decreases the uptake of phosphorus, and less uptake of phosphorus can deteriorate the quality attributes of cotton fiber. There is a need to introduce bio-organic amendments which can mitigate osmotic stress on a sustainable basis. Inoculation of rhizobacteria can play an imperative role in this regard. Rhizobacteria can not only improve the growth of roots but also enhance the availability of immobile phosphorus in soil. That is why the current experiment was conducted to explore and compare the efficacy of sole application of diammonium phosphate (DAP) over plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and phosphorus solubilizing bacteria (PSB) coated DAP on growth and quality attributes of cotton under artificially induced osmotic stress at flowering stage. The impact of phosphorus levels was found to be significant on the plant height, leaf area, average boll weight, stomatal conductance, net photosynthetic rate, and seed cotton yield, while the irrigation effect was significant on all the parameters. The PGPR coated phosphorus performed better as compared to other treatments under normal irrigation and osmotic stress. Results showed that PGPR coated phosphorus increased by 29.47%, 21.01%, 41.11%, 32.73%, 15.63% and 22.89% plant height, average boll weight, stomatal conductance, net photosynthetic rate, fiber length, and seed cotton yield respectively. In conclusion, PGPR coated DAP can be helpful to get higher cotton productivity as compared to control and sole application of DAP under normal irrigation and osmotic stress.