In saline and salinity-affected soils, the global productivity and sustainability of cotton are severely affected by soil salinity. High salt concentrations hinder plant growth and yield formation mainly through the occurrence of osmotic stress, specific ion toxicity, and nutritional imbalance in cotton. A number of agronomic practices have been identified as potential solutions to alleviate the adverse effects induced by salinity. While genetic breeding holds promise in enhancing the salinity tolerance of cotton, agronomic practices that improve the root zone environment, ameliorate soil conditions, and enhance salinity tolerance are currently considered to be more practical. This compressive review highlights the effectiveness of agronomic practices, such as furrow seeding, plastic mulching, their combination, densely planting, and the appropriate application of fertilizer and plant growth regulators, in mitigating the negative impact of salinity on cotton. By implementing these agronomic practices, cotton growers can improve the overall performance and resilience of cotton crops in saline and salinity-affected soils. This review provides valuable insights into practical agronomic measures that can be adopted to counteract the adverse consequences of soil salinity on cotton cultivation.

Crop rotation and intercropping are important ways to increase agricultural resource utilization efficiency and crop productivity. Alternate intercropping, or transposition intercropping, is a new intercropping pattern in which two crops are intercropped in a wide strip with planting positions switched annually on the same land. Transposition intercropping combines intercropping and rotation and thus performs better than either practice alone. Compared with traditional intercropping or rotation, it can increase yield and net return by 17–21% and 10–23%, respectively, and the land equivalent ratio (LER) by 20% to 30%. In crop growth and development, a balanced root–shoot relation is essential to obtain satisfactory yields and yield quality. Intercropping, rotation, or the combination can alter the original root–shoot relation by changing the ecology and physiology of both root and shoot to achieve a rebalancing of the relation. The crop yield and yield quality are thus regulated by the root–shoot interactions and the resulting rebalancing. The review examines the effects of above- and belowground interactions and rebalancing of root–shoot relations on crop yields under cotton-based intercropping, rotation, and particularly alternate intercropping with the practices combined. The importance of signaling in regulating the rebalancing of root–shoot relations under intercropping, rotation, and the combination was also explored as a possible focus of future research on intercropping and rotation.

In vitro ovule culture serves as an experimental platform for exploring the growth and development processes of cotton fibers. However, over the decades, research on the in vitro ovule culture of upland cotton has remained underdeveloped. In this study, ovules collected 2 days post-anthesis (2 DPA) from the upland cotton genetic standard line TM-1 were used to investigate the effects of carbon sources (glucose, fructose, sucrose), kinetin (KT), and glutamine (Gln) on ovule growth and observed fiber development in vitro. The results showed that the ovules grew more favorably on a medium supplemented with 0.05 M glucose, 0.02 M fructose, and their degradation products as carbon sources. Regarding the role of KT, it has a slight inhibitory effect on the development of cotton fiber in vitro at a lower concentration (0.1 mg/L). However, as the concentration increased (0.5 mg/L), its effect shifted to promotion. Additionally, Gln demonstrated the ability to enhance the characteristics of fiber fluffiness. In this study, the optimized formula for the in vitro ovule culture of upland cotton was established. This method provides an improved technical system for the in vitro ovule culture of upland cotton, holding great potential for fiber function genomics and seed bioengineering in cotton.