Dr Katie Broughton1, Sandra Williams1, Jane Caton1
1CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Narrabri, Australia
Biography:
Katie is a research scientist with CSIRO at the Australian Cotton Research Institute in Narrabri, NSW, with experience in crop physiology and growth responses to abiotic stress and climate change. Katie’s current research investigates the industry use of plant growth regulators and the responses of cotton to novel plant growth regulators to explore concepts of altering crop development to target optimal environmental conditions in rainfed systems.
Abstract:
A challenge for the Australian cotton industry is to maintain high lint quality and productivity under conditions of high climatic variability and unreliable water supply, particularly for rainfed and water limited production systems. Altering crop development and canopy architecture through the application of different plant growth regulators may enable cotton growers to strategically manage their crops and facilitate a more resilient cotton system to abiotic stress. There are several novel plant growth regulators that may be useful in cotton production systems but are not currently utilised. We have conducted three seasons of field experiments to investigate if novel plant growth regulators can be used to delay development of cotton. Field studies showed that the application of gibberellin inhibitors delayed time to first square, time to first flower and maturity. These results provide insight to growth and development responses of cotton to exogenous application of plant growth hormones, ultimately aiming to improving the resilience of rainfed cotton production.