Abstract:There is some competition on arable areas between planting cotton and food crops in Xinjiang recently. An alternative approach is to intercrop cotton and food crops or vegetable crops on the same field simultaneously. The objective of the study was to find out some proper combination of crops and cotton based on nutrient competitive absorption and accumulation. A field experiment was conducted in Shihezi University, Xinjiang to investigate the effects of intercropping patterns on temporal patterns of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium uptake and accumulation by interspecific competition and interspecific facilitation between intercropped species. Cropping patterns included peanut/cotton, soybean/cotton, chickpea/cotton, onion/cotton, radish/cotton, line chilli/cotton intercropping and corresponding sole cropping systems. Results showed that soybean and radish were dominant species, and cotton was subordinated species, in which the N, P and K nutrient competitive ratios of cotton relative to soybean or radish were always less than one during co-growth of two species in the cotton/soybean and cotton/radish intercropping systems. The cotton is dominant species, and onion or line chilli were subordinanted species in the intercropping, in which the N, P and K nutrient competitive ratios of cotton relative to peanuts, onion or line chilli were all greater than one during co-growth of two species. The N, P and K nutrient competitive ratios of cotton relative to chickpea were less than one at early co-growth stage of two species, and were greater than one at later cogrowth stage, which suggested that chickpea was dominant species at early cogrowth stage, but became to be subordinated one at later cogrowth stage in the intercropping. There were intercropping advantages for cotton/peanut, cotton/onion, cotton/radish and cotton/line chilli intercropping, which are suitable for local agricultural production.