Through analyzing the relationships of the dry matter accumulation in above-ground part of cotton with the canopy reflectance of single waveband and all two-band combinations in ratio vegetation index (RVI, R(lamda1)/R(lamda2)), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI, (R(lamda1)-R(lamda2))/(R(lamda1) + R(lamda2 and differential vegetation index (DVI, R(lamda1)-R(lamda2)), the characteristic spectral wavebands for indicating the dry matter accumulation in above-ground part of cotton were determined, and the corresponding prediction model was established. The results showed that the vegetation indices comprised of visible light (560 and 710 nm) and near infrared light (810, 870, 950, 1100 and 1220 nm) were highly related to the dry matter accumulation in the above-ground part of cotton, and the RVI (1100, 560) was the best spectral index for the estimation. The corresponding prediction model established by stepwise regression method was Y (g x m(-2)) = 66.274 x RVI (1100, 560)-148.84. It could be feasible to estimate the dry matter accumulation in above-ground part of cotton with remote sensing.