A novel parent selection strategy for the development of salt-tolerant cotton cultivars

Abstract Salinity poses a major obstacle in increasing the yield of cotton. To explore genetic material that can yield better under salt stress conditions, eight parents including 5 females and 3 testers were crossed in line × tester mating design. After successful completion of crossing, parents and their 15 crosses were evaluated for seed cotton yield, within boll yield components, fibre quality, ionic and biochemical traits under control and NaCl salt stressed conditions (10 and 20 dSm −1 ). Under salt stress conditions seed cotton yield, fibre length and fibre strength decreased in all genotypes whereas, lint percentage and fibre fineness increased. Among parents RH-647 and among crosses FH-214 × FH-2015 performed better for seed cotton yield while for fibre quality traits under salt stress conditions among parents KEHKSHAN, and among crosses FH-214 × KEHKSHAN performed better. Results suggested that plant height, boll weight, lint percentage, fibre length and fibre strength are reliable traits for the selection of salt tolerant genotypes in the future cotton breeding programs.