The impact of seed size and chemical composition on seedling vigor, yield, and fiber quality of cotton in five production environments

•Planting seed characteristics are predictive of seedling vigor in field-grown cotton.•Oil+proteinkcal content per seed is most predictive of early vigor.•Planting seed characteristics did not affect yield in most scenarios. Seed mass and oil content of the quiescent cotton seed are positively associated with seedling vigor. In contrast, seed size has been negatively associated with lint yield due to selection for cultivars with greater lint percent. The current study addressed the hypothesis that planting seed mass and total oil+protein calorie content of the quiescent cotton seed would be strongly predictive of seedling vigor across most field conditions and that the impact of seed traits on yield would be dependent upon yield environment. When considered in each yield environment, seedling vigor was positively associated with seed size and the total oil+protein calorie content per seed in four out five environments tested. Regression analysis of cultivar mean oil+proteinkcal content per seed versus seedling vigor across all environments indicated a strong, positive relationship between the two parameters (r2=0.65). Although lint percent was positively correlated with lint yield in every environment, planting seed mass and calorie content were not correlated with lint yield in four of the five environments tested or when cultivar means for lint yield and seed characteristics were averaged across all environments. Thus, it is concluded that individual planting seed mass and total energy content for oil+protein are strong predictors of early seedling vigor. Furthermore, selecting commercially available cultivars with characteristics indicative of seedling vigor does not appear to limit lint yield in most environments tested.