Abstract: Germination experiments and hydroponic experiments were carried out to identify the salt tolerance of 30 cotton varieties planted in Xinjiang. The results revealed that, in the 30 cotton varieties, proportion of the cotton varieties with high salt tolerance (at level Ⅰ) at their bud stage was 16.67% only, that with certain salt tolerance (at level Ⅱ) was 43.30%, and that sensitive to salt and with moderate salt tolerance was 40.00%. At seedling stage, there was no any cotton variety with high salt resistance, there were 8 cotton varieties with salt tolerance at level Ⅱ, and the proportion of cotton varieties with salt tolerance at level Ⅲ was 63.30%. At bud stage, there was an extremely significant positive correlation between the relative bud length and the relative root length, but a significant negative correlation between the relative bud length and the saltharmful index. At seedling stage, there was a significant positive correlation between the rootshoot ratio and the saltharmful index, and the salt tolerance at bud stage could be used to indirectly reflect the salt tolerance at cotton seedling stage.

Key words: cotton, bud stage, seedling stage, salt tolerance, Xinjiang