Table 2.

Summarized findings of salt stress effects during different growth stages of cotton

Growth stage	Possible reason	Effect on growth	References
Germination	Less and delayed germination due to reduced germination potential, fresh mass and vigor index	Negative	Ahmad et al. (2002) and Guo-Wei et al. (2011)
Emergence	Delayed emergence leads to non-availability of nutrients. Less plant vigor which results into poor crop establishment	Negative	Ahmad et al. (2002)
Seedling stage	Reduction in plant height, leaf expansion, root vigor, root dry weight, shoot dry weight and net photosynthetic rate	Negative	Ahmad et al. (2002) and Guo-Wei et al. (2011)
Root growth	Reduction in root length and number of secondary roots, less fresh and dry weight of the roots	Negative	Shaheen et al. (2012) and Silberbush and Ben-Asher (1987)
Flowering and Boll development stage	Delayed onset of flowering, less fruit bearing position, fruit shedding, reduced photosynthetic rate, sucrose transformation rate, boll weight, boll size	Negative	Bernstein and Hayward (1958), Longenecker (1974), Peng et al. (2016a) and Rathert (1983)
Fiber length	Reduced sucrose contents, cellulose contents, sucrose transformation rate and reduced activity of metabolic enzymes (alkaline invertase and SPS)	Negative	Longenecker (1974) and Peng et al. (2016a)
Fiber strength
Fiber maturity
Fiber fineness		Positive	Peng et al. (2016b)