Both reviewers began their careers in cotton genetics, and note that ‘physiology’ is applied today in a wider, more integrated sense than when it referred mainly to plant nutrition and response. This volume is wide-ranging, covering evolution, anatomy, biochemistry and cultivation practices, bridging a 25-year gap since the publication of its predecessor Cotton Physiology. Footnote 1
This book covers the growth and development of the cotton plant in terms of seeds, root systems, leaves, the canopy and fibre. It comprehensively summarizes responses to environmental factors such as temperature, light, water, CO2 and ozone, and deals with nutrition and stresses such as mineral deficiencies and toxicities, salinity, air pollution, pests and reactions to microbes and fungi. There is invaluable new information on mycorrhizas.
Crop management is not neglected, and to aid profitable cropping, the book provides up-to-date information on irrigation, the application of seed treatments, fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and defoliants, plus sections on plant mapping and monitoring.
There are chapters on the cotton fibre, giving key facts about its structure, development, biochemistry and how they impinge upon quality and the book focuses on using new techniques to identify and quantify secondary compounds.
The book devotes little space to breeding and genetics, but informs about the locations and diversity of germplasm collections and their possible contributions to specified objectives, as well as having chapters on molecular biology and genetic engineering.
As the most up-to-date overview of current knowledge of the crop it is, with c.1000 references, an invaluable compendium of cotton agronomy.
