Moringa bio-stimulant promoted cotton production via coordinating anti-oxidants and physiological behaviors to combat reproductive drought stress

Drought impaired the cotton performance owing to the global problem of sudden climatic fluctuation. Bio-stimulant represents a prominent and environmentally friendly approach to improving sustainable cotton production in drought-prone regions around the world. Experimental trials were conducted in the Experimental Research Area, Institute of Agronomy, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan, during the two consecutive years of 2023 and 2024. The treatments were foliar spray of bio-stimulants {hydro (Tap water), moringa bio-stimulants (moringa leaf extract 1:3 MLE30: Water), seaweed extract (3 ml L−1), nitro-phenolates (2 ml L−1)} in various induced terminal reproductive drought stress conditions {control, flowering drought, fruit’s formation drought}. Foliar spray of moringa bio-stimulants significantly improved the morphological development attributes including harvested boll plant−1 (2.70%), average boll weight (18.20%), seed cotton yield (9.72%) as compared hydro treatment under flowering drought followed by fruit’s formation drought. An increasing trend was observed in physiological attributes, including specific leaf weight (11.70%), relative water contents (25.41%), relative cell injury (2.24%), relative membrane permeability (12.26%) after moringa treatment compared to seaweed, nitro-phenolates, hydro treatment in control as well as flowering drought condition. Among bio-stimulants, moringa foliar spray triggered the higher production of anti-oxidants including total soluble proteins (14.10%), superoxide dismutase (12.61%), peroxidase (33.17%), catalase (2.18%), total phenolic contents (9.55%) under fruit’s formation drought and flowering drought than control. Moringa bio-stimulant improved fiber quality parameters including fiber fineness (5.82%), fiber strength (2.43%), fiber uniformity (1.09%), staple length (2.66%) under flowering drought followed by fruit’s formation drought after control. So, it is concluded that cotton yield can be improved by using the moringa foliar spray (1:3 MLE30: Water) during the unfavorable conditions, especially at flowering drought and fruit’s formation drought.