Abstract: 【Objective】 To explore how different irrigation quantities influences on cotton growth and development, yield formation, and water use efficiency. 【Methods】 A field experiment was carried out in Bole City, Xinjiang by using normal irrigation as control (3,360 m³/hm²), and setting up mild water deficit (80% of normal irrigation, 2,688 m³/hm²), moderate water deficit (60% of normal irrigation, 2,016 m³/hm²), severe water deficit (40% of normal irrigation, 1,344 m³/hm²) treatments, to determine plant height, number of nodes in the main stem, number of fruiting branches, bolling and abscission characteristics of cotton at different fertility stages, and mensurate yield components of cotton at harvest. 【Results】 (1) Compared with the normal irrigation treatment, deficit irrigation advanced the cotton bud stage, flowering stage, full boll stage, and fluffing stage by 0 to 4 days, 2 to 6 days, 2 to 7 days, and 3 to 11 days, respectively. (2) After the bud stage, cotton plant height, main stem internode length, the number of fruiting branches and the number of buds and bolls per plant showed a tendency to decrease with the reduction of irrigation; bolls and fruit set were mainly distributed in the middle and lower parts of the canopy, and their numbers all decreased with the reduction of irrigation. (3) Cotton whole-plant biomass showed a decreasing trend with decreasing irrigation amounts. (4) Seed cotton yield showed a decreasing trend with the reduction of irrigation amount, and the seed cotton yield of normal irrigation treatment reached 8,120 kg/hm², which was 7.0%-32.4% higher than that of deficit irrigation treatment, mainly due to the reduction of single boll number; with the reduction of irrigation amount, the irrigation water utilization efficiency gradually increased, and it was the highest in the treatment of severe deficit irrigation, which reached 4.19 kg/m³. 【Conclusion】 Moderate deficit irrigation can help advance the flowering and bell setting time of cotton,shorten the growth period of cotton.