Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181815

Authors: Mubarak Ado Abdullahi Adharsh Rajasekar Evode Niyitanga Weishou Shen

Integrated nutrient management (INM) is increasingly recognized as a promising approach for sustaining crop productivity while reducing some of the environmental impacts associated with intensive agricultural production. This study presents a structured narrative review with critical evidence synthesis of the published literature examining the effects of INM on crop productivity, soil health, and greenhouse gas emissions. Relevant studies were identified through structured searches of Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, covering publications from January 2000 to December 2025. Eligible studies included peer-reviewed field and controlled experiments evaluating the combined application of organic and inorganic nutrient sources across cereal, legume, and vegetable production systems under diverse soil types, climatic conditions, and agroecological regions. The findings show that INM has been associated with improvements in crop yield, soil health, and nutrient use efficiency across many production systems; however, the magnitude of these responses varies with crop type, soil properties, climate, organic input quality, and management practices. Reported yield improvements of approximately 15–25%, reductions in N2O emissions of 15–30%, and decreases in global warming potential of 11–24% represent ranges reported in the reviewed literature rather than pooled effect estimates. Evidence from long-term field experiments further indicates that INM can increase soil organic carbon, improve soil structure, and enhance biological indicators of soil health, although responses are not uniform across all agroecosystems. In flooded rice systems, for example, improvements in greenhouse gas intensity may occur alongside methane–nitrous oxide trade-offs, highlighting the importance of evaluating both agronomic and environmental outcomes.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181814

Authors: Ruibin Tian Zhongli Li Congze Jiang Xianlong Yang Yongli Lu

Feed shortage and water scarcity critically constrain livestock production in semiarid regions, yet the interactive mechanism of growth by which planting density and mowing shape the trade-off between biomass yield and nutritional quality remain poorly quantified for rainfed sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench). The Loess Plateau is located in the north-central part of China. It belongs to the semiarid continental monsoon climate and is mainly rainfed by agriculture. A two-year field experiment (2023–2024) was conducted in this region to investigate how four planting densities (50,000, 70,000, 90,000 and 110,000 plants·ha−1) and two mowing regimes regulate plant morphology, root development and comprehensive nutritional traits. Compared with a mowing treatment, a non-mowing treatment significantly increased dry matter yield from 8.54 t·ha−1 to 21.59 t·ha−1 (an increase of 152.7%) in 2023 and from 10.32 t·ha−1 to 20.91 t·ha−1 (an increase of 102.6%) in 2024. Increasing planting density elevated population biomass, with the 90,000 plants·ha−1 treatment optimally balancing individual growth and interplant resource competition. Mowing reduced stem diameter, leaf area index, and root biomass, thereby lowering fiber concentration but suppressing total dry matter accumulation. Structural equation modeling (GFI = 0.937) quantified this dual effect: mowing exerted a strong negative direct effect on dry matter yield (path coefficient = −4.211, explaining 94.9% of the yield variance) but indirectly improved nutritional quality by thinning stems to optimize leaf allocation. Integrated random forest and radar chart multi-index evaluation identified non-mowing at 90,000 plants·ha−1 as the optimal cultivation regime (comprehensive score Y = 0.917), which coordinated population biomass and nutritional performance while delivering a 23.3% higher net profit than conventional mowing treatments. This study revealed the physiological trade-off path between biomass productivity of sorghum and its quality under drought stress under rainfed conditions on the Loess Plateau and provides a quantitative, replicable evaluation framework to optimize agronomic management for sweet sorghum and analogous C4 crops in global semiarid rainfed ecosystems, offering practical strategies for sustainable forage production.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181813

Authors: Ainash Nauanova Assiya Algozhina Elmira Baimbetova Nazymgul Shumenova Tolkyn Khamitova Shaoshan An Adina Daribek

The present study aimed to evaluate the biocontrol and plant growth-promoting potential of putative nitrogen-fixing bacterial strains isolated from the soils of Northern Kazakhstan against major cereal crop phytopathogens and during the early stages of plant development. Phytopathogenic fungi, Fusarium proliferatum and Alternaria alternata, were isolated from infected cereal tissues and seeds using conventional mycological techniques. The antagonistic activity of the bacterial strains was assessed using a dual-culture assay. A total of 26 bacterial isolates were screened for antagonistic activity and plant growth-promoting effects. Several isolates exhibited pronounced inhibitory activity against both pathogens by suppressing fungal mycelial growth. The plant growth-promoting potential of bacterial culture filtrates was evaluated under in vitro conditions using buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) varieties ‘Shortandinskaya 6’ and ‘Shortandinskaya Krupnozernaya’. Germination energy, laboratory germination, shoot length, and root length were recorded during seedling development. The tested bacterial culture filtrates showed a stimulatory effect on seedling growth, with the most pronounced response observed in root elongation, indicating their positive influence on rhizogenesis. The obtained results demonstrate that Agrobacterium pusense st.51S, Ensifer fredii st.59S, and Oricola cellulosilytica st.70S exhibited strong antagonistic activity against Fusarium proliferatum, whereas O. cellulosilytica st.70S, Streptomyces virginiae st.11S, and Ensifer meliloti st.56S effectively inhibited the growth of Alternaria alternata. In addition, E. meliloti st.56S, Priestia megaterium st.35S, Rhizobium giardinii st.2S, and Ensifer sp. st.91S significantly promoted buckwheat seed germination and seedling growth. The most pronounced growth-promoting effect was observed for E. meliloti st.56S, which increased shoot and root length of ‘Shortandinskaya 6’ by 31.4% and 23.8%, respectively, compared with the control. These strains represent promising candidates for the development of microbial bioformulations aimed at improving seed quality, enhancing early plant development, and promoting sustainable crop production under the dry steppe conditions of Northern Kazakhstan.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181812

Authors: Haiye Yu Muyan Yu Ranzhe Jiang Xin Zhang Zhu Guo Yaohui Fu Xingbang Liu Xingyu Sun Bingze Li Yuanyuan Sui

Soil salinization poses a significant threat to sustainable agricultural development and ecological security worldwide, resulting in considerable crop losses annually. The advent of drone-based hyperspectral remote sensing offers promising solutions for monitoring soil salinity, due to its high spatial resolution and versatile data acquisition capabilities. However, soil moisture alters both the scattering and absorption characteristics of electromagnetic radiation, thereby modifying soil spectral reflectance and masking salinity-related diagnostic spectral features, which can reduce the accuracy of conventional salinity estimation models. This study evaluates six spectral transformation methods—raw reflectance data (Ref), first derivative (FDR), Piecewise Direct Standardization (PDS), Orthogonal Signal Correction (OSC), FDR + PDS, and FDR + OSC—in conjunction with three machine learning algorithms: K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Support Vector Regression (SVR), and Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP). A Stacking ensemble model integrating these base learners was further developed to improve soil salinity inversion under moisture interference. The results demonstrated that the Stacking model achieved the highest accuracy and stability among the evaluated models. Additional comparisons with XGBoost and Random Forest (RF) further confirmed the competitive performance of the proposed Stacking framework. The FDR + OSC–Stacking combination achieved the best validation performance, with Rp2 = 0.87, RMSEP = 0.67 mS·cm−1, and RPD = 2.93. Compared with the Ref–Stacking model, Rp2 increased by 0.32 (from 0.55 to 0.87), while RMSEP decreased by 0.58 mS·cm−1 (from 1.25 to 0.67 mS·cm−1). The results showed that PDS had limited effectiveness in correcting moisture-related spectral variation, whereas OSC more effectively mitigated moisture interference while preserving spectral information relevant to salinity estimation. Among the machine learning models evaluated, the Stacking ensemble model achieved better predictive performance than MLP, SVR, and KNN. Furthermore, the FDR + OSC–Stacking combination provided the best performance among the evaluated modeling frameworks and was successfully applied to UAV hyperspectral imagery for spatial mapping of EC1:5. These findings demonstrate the potential of combining appropriate spectral correction with Stacking for UAV-based soil salinity assessment and provide useful technical support for site-specific salinity management in precision agriculture.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181811

Authors: Chengcheng Zhang Hongtao Cao Hui Xiao Kun Chen Menghao Zhang Jishuo Xu Kangkang Wang Yanmei Wang

Accurate retrieval of leaf area index (LAI), chlorophyll content (Cab), and canopy water content (Cw) is critical for growth monitoring and irrigation scheduling in spring wheat. Yet the quantitative impact of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) multispectral spatial resolution on the retrieval accuracy of these key traits remains elusive, and whether a single optimal resolution can support coordinated multi-parameter monitoring is unresolved. To bridge this gap, this study generated 14 spatial resolutions (0.07–3.03 m) by pixel aggregation resampling from the original four-band UAV multispectral imagery with a native spatial resolution of 0.07 m, acquired at the jointing and filling stages. By coupling the PROSAIL radiative transfer model with random forest, we systematically assessed scale-dependent retrieval performance and employed texture entropy to elucidate how spatial structure governs accuracy. Our results revealed that retrieval accuracy of all three parameters exhibited non-monotonic responses to changing spatial resolution. At the jointing stage, optimal resolutions diverged markedly—0.49 m for LAI, 2.03 m for Cab, and 2.80 m for Cw. Following canopy closure at the filling stage, the optimal resolution converged uniformly to 2.03 m across all parameters. Mechanistically, this non-monotonic variation was closely associated with the combined behavior of spectral coefficient of variation and texture entropy, rather than with any single indicator alone. Building on these findings, we propose a growth-stage-adaptive resolution strategy and develop a Heterogeneity-Scale Game Model (HSGM) as an exploratory framework to characterize the formation mechanism of optimal aggregation scales. This study moves beyond empirical scale selection and establishes an exploratory framework for multi-parameter crop monitoring, delivering actionable guidance for selecting appropriate spatial scales in UAV data processing and multi-scale parameter retrieval in precision agriculture.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181810

Authors: Aaron Ntambiyukuri Xia Li Saba Hameed Dong Xiao Aiqin Wang Jie Zhan Long-Fei He

The circadian clock is an endogenous timekeeping system that coordinates plant growth, development, metabolism, and responses to environmental stimuli. Although circadian regulation has been implicated in multiple abiotic stress responses, its potential involvement in aluminum (Al) stress adaptation in peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) remains poorly understood. A genome-wide analysis was performed to identify and characterize circadian clock genes in peanut and investigate their transcriptional responses to Al stress. A total of 74 circadian clock genes from Arabidopsis thaliana were used as reference sequences to identify homologous genes in the peanut genome. A total of 71 encoding circadian clock proteins were identified and comprehensively characterized through analyses of chromosomal distribution, conserved domains, motif composition, transmembrane regions, subcellular localization, phylogenetic relationships, functional annotation, and protein interaction networks. Transcriptome data (RNA-seq accession PRJNA525247) from Al-sensitive ZH2 (Zhonghua 2) and Al-tolerant 99-1507 peanut cultivars were further analyzed to evaluate gene expression patterns under Al stress. The identified genes were unevenly distributed across all 20 peanut chromosomes and exhibited diverse structural features and predicted biological functions. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated a high degree of evolutionary conservation between peanut and Arabidopsis circadian clock genes. Functional annotation indicated that many identified genes are associated with transcriptional regulation, light perception, signal transduction, phytohormone signaling, and stress-responsive pathways. Comparative transcriptome analysis revealed distinct expression profiles between the Al-sensitive and Al-tolerant cultivars, with several genes, including homologs of XAP5, PIF3, GIGANTEA (GI), FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT), and AGL15, displaying cultivar-dependent responses to Al treatment, where these were upregulated in ZH2 but downregulated in 99-1507. These findings provide the first comprehensive overview of the circadian clock genes in peanut and suggest that circadian regulatory pathways may contribute to transcriptional responses associated with Al stress adaptation. This study establishes a valuable genomic resource for future functional characterization of circadian clock genes and supports molecular breeding efforts for rhythmic traits for Al tolerance in cultivated peanuts.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181809

Authors: Junjie Wu Bei Zhou Jie Liu Zhuyang Xie Jie Luo Jiajun Liu Jiahui Zhu Mingju Li Yan Ai Mingwei Liu Yu Chen

Three-dimensional plant point clouds retain crop architecture, but organ-level phenotyping requires reliable semantic separation of leaves and stems. Plant-GeoAT is a geometry-aware parsing network that encodes local relative-XYZ neighbourhoods before RGB fusion and couples spatial neighbourhoods with feature–space relations for dense point prediction. We evaluated the model separately within the native protocol of a self-built structure-from-motion rapeseed dataset, an image-based soybean dataset, and laser-scanned Pheno4D maize and tomato datasets; these are within-dataset train/test experiments, not cross-dataset transfer or domain-generalisation tests. Across five seeds, mIoU was 92.26 ± 0.28%, 82.50 ± 0.24%, 99.74 ± 0.05%, and 94.75 ± 0.15%, respectively. Maize Stem IoU reached 99.57 ± 0.09%. Adding LLGE increased the four-dataset average mIoU from 66.38% to 85.84%, and the complete LLGE + SSCA model reached 92.31%. On the fixed six-sample test set, exploratory semantic-guided clustering achieved 86.67 ± 7.45% Count Accuracy; structural correctness ranged from 3/6 to 4/6 samples across seeds. Plant-height consistency was assessed independently on all 60 reconstructed rapeseed samples. The results indicate that geometry-to-context encoding produces organ-level semantic units for subsequent phenotyping, while independent instance-labelled datasets and additional growth stages are still needed for trait-level validation.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181808

Authors: Nurbek Zhumabay Sabir Makhmadjanov Malika Ramazanova Aisulu Orken Laura Tokhetova Nurbolat Zhanatalapov Shuga Manabayeva Dilnur Tussipkan

Upland cotton (G. hirsutum L.) is one of the world’s most important commercial fiber crops. The Turkestan region of Kazakhstan is the world’s northernmost cotton-growing region. A four-year field experiment was conducted at the experimental station of the LLP “Agricultural experimental station of cotton and melon growing” from 2021 to 2024. A total of750 lines of G. hirsutum were studied based on phenological, morphological, and agronomic traits. A total of 8 hectares was dedicated to the experiment. The soil comprises light sierozems, which include low humus content, high carbonate content, and relatively low absorption capacity. The study was conducted under average temperatures of 22.9 °C and precipitation totals from 0.9 to 71 mm in 2021–2024. Results revealed significant differences among these years for all studied traits (p < 0.001). According to the average membership function values of 13 traits, the cluster heat map indicated a clear separation into groups, such as low-yielding and late-maturing accessions, and high-yielding and early-maturing accessions. Overall, 41 accessions out of 750 accessions were selected as early-maturing and high-yielding from the 2021–2024 period. This study is the first report on the development of a classification system based on more valuable phenological, morphological, and agronomic traits in the Kazakhstan Cotton Collection. The results demonstrate substantial genetic variability and highlight the potential for developing cotton cultivars adapted to stress-prone environments.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181807

Authors: Yuanyuan Hu Qian Zheng Xuming Wang Shuaishuai Sha Pan Xie Zuhan Kuang Yuansong Xiao Wei Lin

A field experiment was conducted to explore how long-term integrated organic or inorganic fertilization influences soil bacterial communities in dryland farming systems. High-throughput amplicon sequencing was applied to profile bacterial composition and diversity under six treatments—no fertilizer (T0), chemical fertilizer alone (T1), and chemical fertilizer combined with cattle manure (T2), sheep manure (T3), bio-organic fertilizer (T4), or potassium fulvate (T5)—and to pinpoint the major environmental determinants. The results showed that combined fertilization markedly elevated soil nutrient levels, with cattle manure (T2) and sheep manure (T3) exhibiting the strongest effects. The bacterial community was dominated by Actinomycetota, Pseudomonadota, and Chloroflexota. Relative abundances of Pseudomonadota and Bacteroidota increased under combined fertilization, whereas Actinomycetota declined—particularly in T2 and T3. At the genus level, Nocardioides, KD4-96, and Subgroup 6 were predominant. Moreover, T2 and T3 significantly raised the Simpson index relative to T1. Redundancy analysis revealed that soil organic matter (p = 0.002) and pH (p = 0.03) were strongly associated with variation in bacterial community composition. Collectively, long-term combined organic-inorganic fertilization with different organic amendments effectively enhances soil fertility and bacterial community structure, offering a promising approach for nutrient management in the dryland farming regions of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, northwestern China.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181806

Authors: Xiaowei Ma Yuehua Zhang Xuewen Zhao Yanan Wang Chengming Yan Meng Gao Kunliang Xie Bin Liu Xiaoqiang Chu

Elucidating nutrient requirements is crucial for the fertilization management of fruit trees. The current study explored the nutrient uptake and allocation patterns of macro- (N, P, K, Ca and Mg) and micro- (Fe and Zn) elements during the vegetative and reproductive periods of 15-year-old ‘Keitt’ mango trees in Southwest China. The contents of N, P, K, Ca, and Mg were significantly higher in young organs than in perennial organs, while Fe and Zn exhibited the highest accumulation in perennial branches. For yielding 100 kg of fruit in each mango tree, the annual total uptake of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, and Zn was 601.32, 93.45, 275.74, 541.50, 88.68, 21.22, and 1.35 g, respectively. Nutrient allocation showed element-specific patterns during the annual growth cycle. Nutrient losses from pruning and fallen flowers and fruits accounted for 27.74–38.94% of the total nutrient uptake of each tree. The harvested fruits contained 3.79–32.89% of the total nutrient uptake of each tree; furthermore, K and Mg were the two highest amounts in the fruit. The Ca requirement was significantly higher than those of P and K in mango trees; however, only 2% of the total Ca in each tree was distributed in the fruit. These findings can contribute to in-season fertilization strategies for mature mango orchards according to nutrient uptake per tree and fruit yield.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181805

Authors: TaekJin Yoon TaeWan Kim SungYung Yoo

This study aimed to evaluate the growth responses of kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) under nitrogen and compost treatments and to develop a UAV-based plant height estimation model. Ground-measured plant height differences were not significant at harvest (110 days after sowing, DAS), highlighting the need for multitemporal monitoring. Multispectral drone imagery was acquired at five growth stages (20–110 DAS). Object-based image segmentation was applied to extract pure vegetation areas, and digital surface model differencing (ΔDSMt) was used to reduce micro-topographic effects. A UAV-based multiple linear regression (UAV-MLR) model was developed using ΔDSMt, NDVI, GNDVI, and NGRDI to integrate complementary structural and spectral information. Evaluated on the calibration dataset, the UAV-MLR model demonstrated high fitting performance (adjusted R2 = 0.9858, RMSE = 14.95 cm, MAE = 11.31 cm), outperforming the ground-based simple linear regression (G-SLR) model based on stem diameter (adjusted R2 = 0.9615, RMSE = 39.68 cm, MAE = 29.16 cm). By integrating structural and spectral information, the proposed approach reduced RMSE by 62.3%, offering a highly accurate, non-destructive tool for crop monitoring and precision agriculture.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181804

Authors: Shanjun Tian Fang He Xiangyang Guo Angui Wang Xun Wu Dailin Zhao Liang Tu Pengfei Liu Yunfang Zhu Minglun Yang Zehui Chen

The epidemic expansion of maize white leaf spot (WLS) is a substantial threat to the secure and sustained production of maize. Given its diversity and strong environmental adaptability, WLS has the potential to emerge as a globally prevalent disease affecting maize crops. A detailed exploration of genetic segments and genes that are significantly associated with resistance to WLS in maize, an analysis of the genetic mechanisms underlying maize’s response to this disease, as well as the identification and development of resistant germplasm resources and their promotion and application, are of great practical significance for ensuring the safe production of maize. In this study, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 11 related traits in 141 maize accessions was conducted, and a total of 1174 significant single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) sites were identified. BSA-Seq (Bulked Segregant Analysis Sequencing) identified 6319 sites and 79 candidate genes. Through comprehensive analysis of GWAS and RNA-Seq data, a total of 13 candidate genes associated with maize white spot resistance, including Zm00001eb093900 and Zm00001eb078490, were identified. This study systematically explored genetic regions and genes significantly linked to white spot resistance in maize, thereby providing novel genetic resources for future molecular design-based breeding and improvement of resistance traits. Furthermore, by correlating field disease incidence with the expression of immune response-related gene products, we developed a rapid evaluation system for maize WLS resistance, in which soil plant analysis development (SPAD) value, Fm, SSC, and POD served as key indicators. Using this system, 5 immune germplasm resources such as QB2229 and NP5366 and 89 highly resistant materials such as QB1923 and Chang7-2 were identified. The accurate evaluation of maize WLS resistance will provide essential resistance sources for subsequent breeding programs. RNA-Seq analysis revealed that systemic acquired resistance to maize WLS involves key pathways, including phenylpropanoid metabolism, as well as the synthesis of secondary metabolites such as flavonoids and glutathione. Further analysis of race-specific resistance indicated that the response of highly resistant maize varieties to WLS is primarily characterized by the accumulation of defense-related substances and enhanced activity across multiple energy metabolism pathways. In contrast, highly susceptible maize lines exhibited more pronounced enrichment in hormone signaling, the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway, and the metabolism of various amino acids.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181803

Authors: Steven O. Link

Real-time measurement of belowground tuber growth has not been conducted in field crops. Here, a strain-gauge sensor was used to monitor the growth of a single potato tuber and estimate its daily water loss. Over the 11 days preceding harvest, tuber thickness increased by 0.80 mm, corresponding to a daily gain of 1.4 g, or a 4.2% increase. The greatest diurnal fluctuation was 0.439 mm, corresponding to a transpirational water loss of 9.1 mL, or 2.9% of the tuber’s water content. Daily estimated transpiration showed a positive correlation with estimated vapor pressure deficit. This sensor may enable more precise input control and higher temporal resolution than current methods for below-ground crops, supporting improved crop management, yield prediction, and harvest decisions.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181802

Authors: Boburjon Najodov Daniyar Tajibayev Anastasiya Chernook Pavel Kroupin Vladimir Igonin Elena Vertikova Gennady Karlov Mikhail Divashuk

Grain yield stability is a key requirement for spring bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in the Non-Chernozem Zone of Russia, where interannual variation in moisture and heat supply generates substantial genotype × environment interaction (G × E). Six genotypes were evaluated across six growing seasons (2019–2024) at a single site in the Moscow region. Stability analyses (AMMI, WAAS, YSI and HMRP) were applied to grain yield only; phenology, plant height and 1000-kernel weight were characterised by means, coefficients of variation and LSD values. Seasons differed markedly: vegetation-period precipitation ranged from 182.8 to 547.0 mm and the seasonal hydrothermal coefficient from 1.1 to 3.8. Mean yield ranged from 3.21 t ha−1 (Line No. 153) to 3.87 t ha−1 (Zlata), with a grand mean of 3.58 t ha−1. IPCA1 and IPCA2 explained 73.5% and 20.4% of the G × E sum of squares. Zlata had the highest mean yield, within the LSD of Line No. 178, together with the lowest YSI (3), whereas Line No. 178 showed the highest single-year yield (7.03 t ha−1) and the greatest variability (CV = 45.6%). Precipitation during emergence–heading was most closely related to the interaction gradient (r = −0.875). Exploratory marker–IPCA1 associations were partly confounded with germplasm origin and require validation in larger, multi-location datasets.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181801

Authors: Zeyu Du Liwen Liu Rong Yang

Soil fertility quality is a key indicator of soil productivity and sustainable agricultural development. The Zhangye Oasis, a major Maize seed production base in northwestern China, has experienced significant impacts from intensive human activities on soil conditions. In this study, fuzzy mathematics and structural equation modeling (SEM) were employed to evaluate the fertility characteristics of farmland soils (0–20 cm) in this typical oasis region. Our results showed that the mean values of soil organic matter (SOM), available nitrogen (AN), available phosphorus (AP), available potassium (AK), and pH in Zhangye Oasis farmland were 17.98 g·kg−1, 75.04 mg·kg−1, 22.22 mg·kg−1, 206.81 mg·kg−1, and 8.25, respectively. SOM and AN exhibited pronounced spatial heterogeneity, particularly in farmlands near the oasis margins, where nutrient contents were relatively low. The mean soil fertility quality index (SFI) was 0.64, corresponding to Grade VI farmland quality at the national level. Soil fertility showed moderate spatial autocorrelation, decreasing from southeast to northwest. Significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed among soil types, with wind-sand soil (SFI = 0.48) exhibiting the lowest fertility. The SFI followed the following order: no obvious obstacle (0.67) > saline–alkali (0.59) > irrigated improved (0.57) > sandy farmland (0.48). Continuous Maize cropping reduced SFI by 26.32% compared with the Other—Oilseed crops/Grazing cropping system. Overall, the oasis farmland exhibited relatively low soil fertility, dominated by Grade VI–VII levels. Improving the fertility of continuously Maize-cropped and irrigation-improved farmlands within the constraints of local water resources is crucial for ensuring sustainable agricultural production in the Zhangye Oasis.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181800

Authors: Di Wu Feng Ma Feng Ding Xu Leng Zhengsheng Hu Hui Wang

Water scarcity and soil salinization constrain sustainable alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) production in arid Xinjiang, China. Although drip irrigation and microbial inoculants improve soil quality and crop productivity, their synergistic effects on rhizosphere ecosystems remain unclear. This study investigated the effects of drip irrigation combined with composite microbial inoculants on rhizosphere soil properties, fungal communities, and alfalfa yield. A two-factor randomized block experiment was conducted with four irrigation levels (6450, 7050, 7650, and 8250 m3/ha) and three inoculant rates (0, 0.5, and 1.0 m3/ha), with conventional irrigation (9750 m3/ha) as the control. We analyzed soil properties, fungal communities, and ecological relationships using high-throughput sequencing and partial least squares path modeling. Combined irrigation and inoculation improved soil nutrient availability, reduced rhizosphere salinity, and enhanced fungal network stability. Moderate irrigation combined with inoculation increased soil alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen, available phosphorus, and available potassium, while W4J2 achieved the highest yield. Irrigation explained more fungal community variation (33.2%) than inoculation (18.6%), with salinity and nutrients as key drivers. Path analysis revealed that irrigation directly promoted yield, whereas inoculation indirectly enhanced productivity through soil improvement and fungal regulation. Integrating drip irrigation with microbial inoculants provides an effective strategy for sustainable forage production in saline arid regions.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181799

Authors: Junhao Wang Zhong Chen Zihan Wang Qi Miao Yulong Yin Qingfeng Meng Zhenling Cui

Global modeling of soil net nitrogen mineralization rates (Nmin) is challenging due to the absence of an integrated system that accurately quantifies their magnitude and spatial distribution. This study addresses this gap by analyzing the spatial variability of Nmin using a comprehensive dataset of 1347 Nmin measurements from 291 studies, combined with high-resolution climate and soil data. Our global maps reveal average Nmin rates of 1.68, 5.17, and 1.71 mg N kg−1 day−1 for cropland, forest, and grassland soils, respectively. Integrating projected climate scenarios, we also explore potential shifts in Nmin patterns under future varying environmental conditions. Key factors influencing Nmin include mean annual precipitation, soil pH, total nitrogen, carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, and microbial biomass nitrogen, with microbial biomass nitrogen playing a particularly significant role. These findings underscore the potential of global-scale Nmin modeling to support informed decision-making, facilitating optimal fertilizer use and management practices that promote soil health and sustained productivity.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181798

Authors: Tianxu Li Yongjie Shao Yage Li Xinchuan Cao Xiaoyan Zhao Liangrong He

Elucidating the spatiotemporal interaction patterns among cotton yield, fiber quality, and seed nutritional traits is crucial for the efficient use of cotton as an oil, fiber, and feed crop and for advancing multi-objective breeding. A two-year field experiment (2023–2024) with eight upland cotton varieties was conducted to systematically analyze the dynamic evolution and association networks of multiple traits across flowering stages and canopy positions. Significant genotypic differences were observed: J206-5 (A8) showed a strong yield potential; Tada 1611 (A6) demonstrated an excellent and stable fiber quality; and Xinhuimian 230 (A4) and Shida K9 (A5) showed a consistently high oil and protein accumulation. Temporally, mid-July emerged as a critical window for the synergistic improvement of the fiber quality and protein, while late July favored the boll weight, lint percentage, and oil content. Spatially, the central fruit branches optimized the yield; the upper branches enhanced nutrient accumulation; and the lower branches showed a superior fiber quality. Correlation analysis revealed that fiber quality traits had a stable internal structure, but yield–quality associations were significantly reshaped by interannual environmental fluctuations. Notably, the oil content and protein content were positively correlated across years and positions, yet independently of fiber traits, suggesting that kernel nutrition and fiber development are governed by relatively independent pathways. A comprehensive evaluation classified the germplasm into three groups: integrated high-yield, high-quality, high-nutrition types; trait-specific types; and poor performers. This study provides systematic evidence for the phenotypic feasibility of synergistically improving cottonseed nutrition and fiber quality. It identifies July 17 as the critical flowering window and middle fruit branches as the core canopy position for multi-trait coordination, offering a theoretical basis and practical reference for oil–fiber–feed utilization and multi-objective breeding in southern Xinjiang cotton.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181796

Authors: Saúl Sánchez-Mendoza Angélica Bautista-Cruz Teodulfo Aquino-Bolaños Arcelia Toledo-López

Agave marmorata Roezl is a valuable species widely used for mezcal production. This study evaluated the effects of two substrates and three consortia of halotolerant plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) on seedling emergence and early growth of A. marmorata. A completely randomized 2 × 4 factorial design was used. The number of emerged seedlings (NES), emergence speed index (ESI), and several morphometric and biomass traits were evaluated. Cosmopeat® significantly increased both NES and ESI compared with soil. Although PGPB inoculation did not significantly affect seedling emergence, it enhanced several growth and biomass traits. The Bacillus sp. + Stutzerimonas sp. and Priestia sp. + Streptomyces sp. consortia produced the greatest increases in stem diameter and biomass. In addition, Priestia sp. + Streptomyces sp. increased plant height, whereas Bacillus sp. + Stutzerimonas sp. increased the number of unfolded leaves. Significant substrate × inoculant interactions were detected for leaf fresh weight, root fresh weight, total fresh biomass, leaf dry weight, and total dry biomass. PCA further revealed distinct multivariate patterns among substrate × inoculant combinations, with individual treatments associated with different components of seedling growth and biomass allocation. Overall, these findings indicate that substrate selection and halotolerant PGPB inoculation can play complementary roles in improving the early establishment and growth of A. marmorata seedlings.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181797

Authors: Lixuan Zhao Nan Wang Chao Yang Lei Yang Chongchong Chen Na Li Lijie Zhang Haiyong Jiang

Sesame seeds are small, irregularly shaped, and poorly flowable, often causing insufficient filling and unstable discharge in external fluted-roller seed-metering devices. This study developed a sesame–companion-particle binary seed-metering system to improve metering stability. The discrete element method (DEM) was used to simulate particle motion, and the model was validated through YOLO11-based machine-vision experiments. Response surface methodology was then applied to evaluate the effects of mass mixing ratio, companion-particle density ratio B, and particle diameter on seed-metering performance. The normalized cumulative discharge trajectories from the experiments and simulations showed high agreement, with mean Pearson correlation coefficients exceeding 0.99 for sesame seeds, sorghum particles, and total particles. The recommended parameter combination was a sesame-to-companion-particle mass mixing ratio of 9.102:1, B = 1.315 (ρc = 1222.95 kg·m−3), and a companion-particle diameter of 1.636 mm. Under this combination, the proportion of strong force chains was 14.25 percentage points lower than the maximum among the investigated conditions. Appropriate matching of companion-particle parameters can restructure interparticle contacts, weaken strong force chains near the seed outlet, and improve sesame seed-metering stability and discharge-composition uniformity.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181795

Authors: Junyi Wang Chenyu Xi Yiming Chen Ling Su Zhong Tang

High-value greenhouse crops require quality-sensitive selective harvesting under labor shortages and variable crop conditions. This review synthesizes 188 unique primary studies and examines robotic harvesting as a complete task chain rather than a set of isolated sensing or manipulation modules. Embodied intelligence is used as an analytical lens to connect perception, harvestability assessment, decision making, manipulation, feedback, failure propagation, and recovery. A greenhouse-cucumber case study illustrates how errors propagate across these stages. The synthesis shows that the dominant bottleneck is system integration: incomplete observability, short-lived scene states, contact uncertainty, and weak outcome verification or recovery cause cumulative losses in complete-task success, effective throughput, and product quality. Most reported systems remain at closed-loop automation or early embodied interaction, with limited evidence of interaction-driven learning or cross-context generalization. We therefore frame evaluation around six production-relevant dimensions: complete-task success, effective cycle time and retry cost, product quality, failure detection and recovery, human intervention, and continuous operation. Near-term priorities are reliable, recoverable operation in defined crop–facility systems and standardized reporting; adaptation across cultivars and greenhouse configurations is a medium-term objective, whereas embodied learning and broad cross-platform transfer remain longer-term research directions. This system-level perspective reframes smart robotic harvesting around information continuity, fault containment, and deployable greenhouse performance.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181794

Authors: Panpan Yuan Huiqing Peng Meng Wang Chao Ji Xingliang Zhu Shanying Zhang Sidikejiang Aiwaili Yong Shi Zhikun Wang Minghao Zhang Pengfei Wen Jia You

Early spring low temperatures and plastic film use constrain sustainable cotton production in Xinjiang. This study compared five integrated cultivation systems: conventional tillage with plastic mulch (CK), no-tillage with non-woven fabric arch shed (NTN), no-tillage with blue plastic film arch shed (NTB), conventional tillage with plastic film mulching and non-woven fabric arch shed (CTPN), and conventional tillage with plastic film mulching and blue plastic film arch shed (CTPB). Soil hydrothermal conditions, plant growth, root traits, yield components, and seed cotton yield were evaluated. CTPN and CTPB improved seedling-stage hydrothermal conditions and early growth relative to CK. Across the monitored 0–450 mm soil profile, mean soil temperature under CTPN and CTPB was 21.13% and 17.75% higher than under CK, respectively, while mean soil water content was 17.12% and 10.68% higher, respectively. However, these advantages did not result in the highest yield. NTN achieved the highest seed cotton yield, 15.19% higher than CK, followed by NTB with a 9.02% increase. NTN’s yield advantage was mainly associated with higher seed cotton weight per boll. Correlation analysis showed that boll number per plant was negatively associated with yield, whereas seed cotton weight per boll was positively associated with yield. Overall, favorable seedling-stage conditions alone did not determine final productivity, and NTN showed potential for practical application under comparable arid Xinjiang conditions while reducing reliance on conventional surface plastic mulch.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181793

Authors: Minhyeok Jang Jincheol Kim Dae-Hyun Jung Ick-Hyun Jo

Image-based cultivar identification remains challenging in perennial medicinal crops because cultivar-specific datasets are often small and morphological differences can be subtle. This study investigated whether a Siamese network-based hybrid learning framework could support cultivar classification and image-derived phenomic similarity analysis in Panax ginseng under low-data conditions. A total of 347 images representing 22 cultivars across four above-ground image acquisition categories were evaluated using stratified five-fold cross-validation. The framework jointly optimized class-weighted cross-entropy and contrastive losses, and five ImageNet-pretrained backbone architectures were assessed across contrastive margins. ConvNeXt-Tiny with a margin of 0.50 achieved the highest five-fold mean performance, with an accuracy of 64.31 ± 7.23% and a macro-F1 score of 61.66 ± 6.63%. UMAP visualization indicated qualitative reorganization of the embedding space after fine-tuning, while Grad-CAM++ localized model responses mainly to plant structures, including leaf, stem, and fruit regions, rather than broad background areas. Hierarchical clustering of cultivar embeddings further suggested structured phenomic relationships, with cosine distance and average linkage yielding a cophenetic correlation of 0.81 ± 0.08 and Kendall’s τ-b of 0.61 ± 0.06. These findings support the potential of hybrid classification and metric learning as a complementary tool for extracting interpretable phenomic representations from limited ginseng image datasets. The framework may provide supporting image-based evidence alongside conventional morphological cultivar assessment. However, the observed cultivar relationships should be considered exploratory and require validation across environments, developmental stages, independent datasets, and genetic information before broader biological interpretation.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181792

Authors: Miao Hou Fanxu Meng Wenxuan Dai Chuanming Yang Hongyu Li Mingyu Fan

Straw and biochar incorporation are sustainable soil improvement practices to enhance crop productivity. However, the responses of japonica rice to these organic amendments under different planting modes remain unclear in cold regions. A pot experiment was conducted, including two planting methods (transplanting and wet direct-seeding) and three return treatments (straw removal, straw incorporation and biochar incorporation). Rice growth traits, physiology and yield components were investigated. The results showed that wet direct-seeded rice exhibited depressed growth at the reproductive stage, along with smaller root systems and lower root activity, leading to a significant 19.55% yield reduction. Straw incorporation inhibited the early growth for transplanted rice. Biochar incorporation promoted early vegetative growth under both planting modes and significantly increased the activities of nitrogen-metabolism-related enzymes for transplanted rice. Straw and biochar incorporation increased the root bleeding rate and photosynthetic characteristics at the late stage, leading to yield increases of 9.89% and 13.09% for transplanted rice, respectively. No significant yield gains were observed for wet direct-seeded rice. These results indicate that biochar incorporation is an efficient organic returning strategy for transplanted rice, and the responses of japonica rice to straw and biochar incorporation are highly dependent on planting patterns in cold regions.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181791

Authors: Xifeng Liang Taiyang Wang Wenshuo Gao Baiyang Gu Hui Zhang Yebo Qin

Tomato pruning robots are limited by the absence of accurate shear simulation models for tomato stems. Conventional homogeneous discrete element models are incapable of characterizing the multi-layer heterogeneous structure of tomato stems, which gives rise to significant simulation deviations. With Zheza No. 8 tomato stems as research objects, this study measured intrinsic and contact parameters through physical tests and constructed a three-layer bonded discrete element model to simulate the epidermis, xylem and pith with particles of different sizes. Bonding parameters were calibrated using a two-level factorial design, steepest ascent test and Box–Behnken design with shear force as the evaluation index. The optimal parameters reduced simulation errors by 75.8% and 43.7% relative to traditional and pre-optimized models, and accurately reproduced the double-peak shear behavior. The model accuracy improves with xylem maturation, providing a dependable simulation method for the optimization of tomato pruning robots.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181790

Authors: Henry Morocho-Romero Ricardo Peña-Castillo Arturo Morales-Pizarro Alex Valencia-Flores Edgar Paiva-Avendaño Gerson La Rosa-Lama Max Ramírez-Rojas Carlos San Martin-Zapata

Key lime (Citrus aurantifolia (Christm.) Swingle) is an important fruit crop in northern Peru; however, inadequate canopy management can limit productivity and fruit quality. This study evaluated the effects of different pruning systems on vegetative growth, flowering, yield, and fruit quality of key lime under the growing conditions of the Piura region. The experiment was conducted during the 2024 and 2025 growing seasons in two commercial orchards using a randomized complete block design with four pruning systems, namely maintenance pruning (MP), thinning pruning (TP), maintenance pruning combined with thinning pruning (MP + TP), and no pruning (NP), with four replicates per system. Vegetative growth, flowering, yield, and fruit quality variables were evaluated. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA), Tukey’s honestly significant difference (HSD) test (p < 0.05), principal component analysis (PCA), hierarchical cluster analysis, and correlation analysis. Pruning significantly affected vegetative growth, flowering, yield, and fruit physical attributes, whereas juice soluble solids, vitamin C content, and titratable acidity were not significantly affected. MP, TP, and MP + TP were associated with higher yields than NP, while MP also showed greater values for several fruit physical attributes. Some responses varied with growing season and/or study site. Overall, pruning modified vegetative and productive responses in key lime, and MP combined relatively high yield with greater values for several fruit physical attributes under the edaphoclimatic conditions of the studied orchards in Piura.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181789

Authors: Hang Shi Miao Wu Nuo Li Hao Sun Yafei Wang Guobin Wang Changxi Liu Jun Hu

The near-nozzle liquid sheet is a precursor to droplet formation, yet the quantitative relationship between its visual signatures and downstream droplet volume median diameter (<!-- MathType@Translator@5@5@MathML2 (no namespace).tdl@MathML 2.0 (no namespace)@ -->

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181788

Authors: Hyeon-Seo Yoon Yi-Seo Min Young-Woo Do Seung-Min Baek Seung-Yun Baek Deok-Hyeon Ko Yong-Joo Kim Wan-Soo Kim

The stream of onions entering a self-propelled onion collector varies with field conditions, feeding density, and the transient lifting behavior of the onion–soil mass, whereas the collection conveyor is conventionally operated at a fixed speed, wasting hydraulic energy. This study proposes and evaluates, through field-calibrated simulation, a vision-based feedforward conveyor speed control framework that couples reel-synchronous onion counting with variable-displacement pump control. To mitigate the periodic occlusion caused by the compact dual-conveyor structure, a frame-selection method synchronized with the detected conveyor position was implemented, and a YOLOv8n detector was trained and evaluated on 314 images extracted from 32 indoor and field source videos partitioned at the source-video level. On the independent test subset, the model achieved precision, recall, and mAP@0.5 of 0.952, 0.944, and 0.959, and the proposed counting method maintained count recovery ratios above 95% across all engine speeds in 45 independent field trials, outperforming fixed-period sampling and tracking-based baselines by 6.6 and 3.8 percentage points, respectively. An AMESim model of the fixed-displacement hydraulic system was calibrated and shown to be consistent with field measurements and was then used to evaluate the variable-displacement configuration. Net conveyor-related fuel savings (engine no-load consumption subtracted) were estimated at 14.3–18.7% under the field-identified constant transmission efficiency, with conservative estimates of 11.5–16.9% when partial-displacement efficiency losses were accounted for through an anchored loss model. These results demonstrate the feasibility of vision-based feedforward conveyor speed control and its potential for energy savings in bulb-crop collection.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181785

Authors: Lanbing Feng Junying Wu Junzhen Zhang Junzhen Mi

Saline–alkali stress is a major abiotic constraint limiting crop production worldwide. To address the lack of a systematic evaluation system for oat seedling saline–alkali tolerance adapted to soda saline–alkali soil in the Hetao Plain, 80 oat accessions with diverse genetic backgrounds were used as materials in this study. Seedlings were subjected to stress induced by a 75 mM composite saline–alkali solution (NaCl:Na2SO4:NaHCO3:Na2CO3 = 1:9:9:1), which simulates the typical salt composition of local soda saline–alkali soils. Six seedling-stage traits, including seedling emergence rate, chlorophyll content, relative electrolyte leakage, malondialdehyde content, free proline content, and soluble sugar content, were determined, and the saline–alkali tolerance coefficient of each trait was calculated. Principal component analysis, the subordinate function method, and hierarchical cluster analysis were integrated to construct a comprehensive evaluation system for saline–alkali tolerance. The results showed that the coefficients of variation of all tested traits ranged from 21.15% to 113.66%, indicating abundant genotypic variation among different germplasms. Three principal components with eigenvalues greater than 1 were extracted, with a cumulative contribution rate of 65.79%; these components mainly reflected cell membrane status, osmotic substance accumulation, and growth performance, respectively. The comprehensive evaluation value (D-value) ranged from 0.290 to 0.884, and stepwise regression analysis identified soluble sugar, relative electrolyte leakage, and proline as core screening indicators. Combined with hierarchical cluster analysis, the 80 oat germplasms were classified into five saline–alkali tolerance grades, and significant differences in key traits were observed among grades. Germplasms with high saline–alkali tolerance performed outstandingly in maintaining membrane integrity and accumulating osmotic substances. This study established a practical multi-index comprehensive evaluation system for seedling-stage saline–alkali tolerance in oats adapted to soda saline–alkali environments and identified three candidate tolerant germplasm resources. These results provide technical methods and preliminary candidate materials for oat saline–alkali tolerance breeding and saline–alkali land utilization in the Hetao Plain, while the tolerance performance of the selected germplasms still needs to be verified under multi-concentration stress and field conditions.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181787

Authors: Xian Shen Yunlong Zhang Peiyin Jiang Yuemao Chen Mengmeng Wang Yicheng Xu Zhiyu Zhu Yunxiang Zang Jianguo Wu

To explore the regulatory effects and mechanisms of LED green light (peak at 520 nm) combined with different low temperatures on broccoli postharvest storage, the Brassica oleracea var. italica ‘Meiqing’ was harvested and stored under two temperatures and pretreated with supplemental LED green light. Periodic determinations were conducted on physical and chemical indexes, including appearance, texture, nutritional quality, and antioxidant capacity, along with differential gene expression analysis via transcriptome sequencing. Results showed that 0 °C storage outperformed 4 °C overall, and the 1 h green light pretreatment achieved the optimal effect. This treatment significantly delayed curd yellowing, reduced weight loss, maintained high firmness, preserved nutritional components, enhanced the activities of antioxidant enzymes and key enzymes in the AsA-GSH cycle, and alleviated membrane damage by reducing H2O2 and MDA levels. Transcriptome analysis revealed that green light pretreatment regulated gene expression in chlorophyll metabolism and antioxidant-related pathways. Overall, 0 °C combined with 1 h of green light pretreatment effectively prolonged the storage period of broccoli and maintained its commercial and nutritional quality, providing a novel technical strategy for postharvest broccoli preservation.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181786

Authors: Puru Wang Shanshan Guo Fan Zhang Baohe Zhang

Drought and water scarcity are threatening the food security in irrigation districts around the world, urging water-saving and highly efficient irrigation scheduling. However, the increasing uncertainty jointly caused by changing environment and human activities makes it much more difficult and unreliable. In this study, a chance-constrained multi-objective robust programming framework was proposed to optimize irrigation scheduling of multi-cropping systems, while dealing with hybrid uncertainty and multiple objectives simultaneously. It integrates deficit irrigation theory, soil water movement and reservoir regulation and was applied in a seasonal drought region of Southwest China with multi-cropping systems. The results show that: (1) the optimal irrigation schemes can substantially mitigate the seasonal drought and reveal the influence of uncertainty from parameters on the objectives; (2) compared with the current practice, the optimized irrigation scheduling can help save water for wet-season crops and reflect the response of crops to various water demand and supply scenarios; (3) the risk preferences, goal preferences, the expected objectives interval, and the preferences for robust penalty of decision makers were investigated to show their interactive influence on the results. Although there are still limitations, the developed model can help improve drought resistance, save water and realize sustainable development of agriculture.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181784

Authors: Xiaohong Peng Wei Qiu Shaocheng Si

Thiol-modified attapulgite (TM) combined with manganese sulfate (MnSO4) can reduce cadmium (Cd) availability in alkaline soils, but the influence of MnSO4 application timing on Cd transfer to wheat grain remains unclear. In this study, a soil incubation experiment and two wheat pot experiments were conducted to evaluate soil Cd immobilization, organ-specific Cd distribution, and the effects of applying MnSO4 before sowing, at the jointing stage, or at the grain-filling stage. Low- and high-dose MnSO4 treatments were applied alone or with TM, and the combined treatments were defined as TM+LS and TM+HS. Compared with the untreated control, TM+LS and TM+HS decreased dissolved Cd from 1.80 μg L−1 to 0.35 and 0.20 μg L−1, respectively, and reduced grain Cd from 0.19 mg kg−1 to 0.08 and 0.06 mg kg−1. These reductions were associated with decreased DTPA-extractable Cd, enhanced Cd adsorption, lower Cd desorption, and restricted Cd transfer from roots to shoots and from glumes to grains. Jointing-stage MnSO4 application produced the lowest grain Cd concentration and glume-to-grain transport coefficient. These findings indicate that optimizing MnSO4 application timing can improve TM-assisted Cd immobilization and wheat grain safety in alkaline Cd-contaminated soil.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181783

Authors: Bethan Shaw Trisna D. Tungadi Greg Deakin Michelle T. Fountain

Drosophila suzukii is a globally invasive pest that lays eggs in ripening fruit, causing degradation through larval feeding and significant economic losses. Control of D. suzukii relies on integrated pest management, combining cultural, biological and chemical methods, with insecticide applications serving as a final line of defence. This study investigated whether regular insecticide use in United Kingdom (UK) soft-fruit crops resulted in reduced between- and within-year susceptibility of D. suzukii to three commonly used insecticides. Field-collected D. suzukii were used to establish laboratory strains from summer collections in 2019, 2020 and 2021, and autumn collections in 2020. Strains were reared for 8–10 generations before exposure to a range of concentrations of cyantraniliprole, lambda-cyhalothrin and spinosad in mortality bioassays. No consistent directional increase in LC50 was observed across the three sampling years. However, more than half of the strains established from autumn 2020 collections showed reduced susceptibility to some insecticides compared with strains from the same locations collected four months earlier, with a 1.4–2.1-fold increase in LC50. These results indicate generally stable susceptibility in UK populations while highlighting the value of continued resistance monitoring.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181782

Authors: Haoyuan Niu Yuxiang Wang Xiaoyan Meng Xi Cheng Wenbin Zhang Hao Qiu Yunjie Zhao

Accurate point-cloud segmentation of cotton organs is essential for precise phenotypic characterization. However, reliable instance segmentation of cotton bolls in field-derived point clouds remains challenging because foliage occlusion, contact between adjacent bolls and incomplete reconstruction obscure instance boundaries. Here we present RQ-PointNeXt, an end-to-end framework that directly maps input point clouds to boll instance masks within a unified trainable network. Built on PointNeXt, it incorporates relative-elevation geometric channel attention in the shallow encoder to fuse global channel context with elevation and surface-normal cues. Its Query–mask branch integrates semantic guidance, center-seeded queries and a center-aware mask prior to suppress background responses, localize instances and constrain mask extent. Hungarian matching and multitask optimization establish one-to-one query–instance assignments, whereas query-based decoding produces instance masks without external geometric clustering. We evaluated the framework on 226 field-grown cotton plants containing 720 annotated boll instances reconstructed from UAV multi-view imagery using neural radiance fields. On the held-out test set, overall accuracy, mean class accuracy and mean intersection over union reached 0.8942, 0.8980 and 0.8076, respectively. AP25, AP50 and AP75 were 0.7359, 0.5585 and 0.2777, yielding an mAP25/50/75 of 0.5240. The framework provides instance-level outputs for boll counting and spatial analysis in high-throughput field phenotyping.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181781

Authors: Eryk Gadzała Jacek Łuc Rebecca Miszczak Klaudia Sychta Lucia Urbanová Silvia Farkasová Maria Pilarska Joanna Sobolewska-Zielińska Marek Kruczek Justyna Żabicka Natalia Zając Paweł Dudzik Agnieszka Płażek Przemysław Kopeć Jana Žiarovská Aneta Słomka

Cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) contamination may alter common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench cv. ‘Korona’) physiology and composition. The objective was to determine whether common buckwheat maintains physiological performance under controlled Cd and Pb exposure while assessing metal transfer to harvested achenes. A 12-day in vitro phytotoxicity assay based on seed germination and root elongation and a six-week pot experiment were conducted. Cd had a stronger impact on in vitro seed germination and root growth than Pb. Under the highest metal treatments, soil concentrations reached 14,733.98 µg g−1 DW for Cd and 5621.60 µg g−1 DW for Pb; concentrations in leaves and achenes were substantially lower, although Cd transfer to the achenes remained relevant to food safety. Adult plants showed no consistent treatment-related changes in leaf water content, photosynthetic pigments, or Fv/Fm. Biochemical analyses detected treatment effects in proline, H2O2, SOD, CAT, and total phenolics. The treatment with 1000 mg L−1 of Cd showed the highest leaf SOD activity and mature-achene total phenolic content. The largest observed compositional difference was the high lysine content under 5000 mg L−1 of Cd in leaves and mature achenes, but this coincided with substantial Cd contamination and therefore cannot be interpreted as biofortification or a nutritional benefit. Overall, responses were non-monotonic and organ-specific, indicating substantial physiological adjustment during short-term exposure while confirming Cd transfer to mature achenes as a food-safety concern.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181780

Authors: Xunwei Yin Liqing Zhao

Accurate identification of maize ears during harvesting is a prerequisite for enabling automated operations and yield estimation in the seed maize industry. Utilizing computer vision algorithms to assist seed maize harvesters in adjusting operating conditions in real time can significantly enhance harvesting quality. To address existing challenges in ear recognition during active harvesting—such as large variations in individual ear sizes, complex field environments, and difficulties in dynamic scene perception—this paper proposes an improved model, BiF-YOLO, to achieve precise recognition of seed maize ears during the harvest season. This model is based on the YOLOv11n model and the BiFormer architecture. Three targeted enhancement strategies are proposed to optimize the model; (1) to enhance the recognition capability for occluded and small-sized maize ears in the field, a C3k2_AdditiveBlock module is embedded into the feature extraction network; (2) to suppress background interference during recognition, focus on the maize ear regions, and reduce missed and false detections, a C2BRA dual-layer routing attention mechanism (Cross-stage partial 2 Bottleneck with Residual Attention) is established; (3) the ShapeIoU loss function is employed to improve the model’s attention to the shape characteristics of maize ears themselves. Seed maize ear images were collected from seed production fields in Jiaozhou and Zhangye. The experimental results validated that the BiF-YOLO model effectively adapts to complex in-field operational scenarios.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181779

Authors: Donglin Wang Xiaoran Zhao Lishou Yan Shaobo Liu Qinge Dong

The North China Plain is a core grain-producing region in China. Under the dual pressures of global warming and intensifying human activities, frequent agricultural droughts pose a serious threat to regional food security and sustainable agricultural development. Based on ERA5-Land root-zone soil-moisture data (1982–2022), this study constructed the Standardized Soil Moisture Index (SSMI) and applied an MMK trend test, Partial Wavelet Coherence (PWC), and sub-regional Pearson correlation to investigate drought evolution and driving mechanisms. Groundwater-level and effective-irrigated-area datasets were further incorporated to complement soil-moisture-based analysis and investigate the anthropogenic drivers behind drought variations. The results show that: (1) The regional-average SSMI showed a significant decreasing trend at a rate of −0.013 decade−1 (p < 0.001), indicating the intensification of agricultural drought. Meanwhile, the SPEI presented a non-significant increasing trend of 0.145 × 10−2 decade−1 (p < 0.001), revealing the existence of hysteresis between the two drought types. Spring suffered the most severe drought, while drought is alleviated by precipitation replenishment in summer, which highlighted the association between seasonal differences and regional climatic characteristics. (2) Groundwater level (GW) is identified as the dominant explanatory factor for agricultural drought (POSC = 70.53%, AWC = 0.93), far exceeding precipitation (16.66%) and evapotranspiration (8.71%), which underscores the pivotal role of groundwater in regulating soil moisture. (3) The driving mechanisms of agricultural drought exhibit remarkable north–south differentiation: southern sub-regions are predominantly driven by meteorological factors, whereas northern sub-regions are closely associated with intensive groundwater irrigation. Anthropogenic groundwater over-extraction shows strong statistical associations with agricultural drought variability. Future work should combine groundwater dynamics, irrigation and crop phenology. These findings support refined drought early-warning and region-tailored mitigation for the North China Plain.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181778

Authors: Vasilina Maneva Ivanka Semerdjieva Dina Atanasova Ivayla Dincheva

Wild C. sativa (hemp) represents a promising source of bioactive compounds with potential applications in sustainable pest management, while Rhopalosiphum padi and Sitobion avenae are among the most economically important aphid pests of cereal crops. However, the insecticidal, repellent, and sublethal behavioural effects of essential oil (EO) derived from wild hemp against these aphid species remain insufficiently characterised. Therefore, this preliminary study aimed to evaluate the insecticidal and repellent activities of wild hemp EO and to characterise aphid behavioural responses following exposure. The chemical composition of the EO was determined by GC–MS–FID, while locomotor activity and spatial behaviour were assessed using automated video tracking with EthoVision XT. β-Caryophyllene (37.07%), α-pinene (13.98%), and α-humulene (α-caryophyllene) (8.33%) were identified as the predominant constituents. The EO exhibited pronounced insecticidal activity, causing complete mortality (100%) of both R. padi and S. avenae at all tested concentrations (1.0–5.0%). In contrast, its repellent activity did not exhibit a consistent concentration-dependent pattern. Automated behavioural tracking revealed no significant effects of EO exposure on aphid spatial distribution, locomotor activity, or mobility. Although EO-treated aphids showed a numerical tendency to remain closer to the treated area (mean distance to drop centre: 3.68 ± 0.98 cm versus 4.41 ± 1.11 cm in controls), this difference was not statistically significant. Similarly, total distance travelled and mean velocity remained comparable between EO-treated and control groups, indicating the absence of detectable sublethal on locomotor activity. Overall, the results demonstrate that wild hemp EO possesses strong insecticidal potential against cereal aphids, while its biological activity appears to be primarily associated with toxic effects rather than behavioural deterrence.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181777

Authors: Guanqun Wang Weidong Jia Jun Guo Hongwei Yuan Naixuan Zhu Hanshuo Yang

Spray application in spatially heterogeneous three-dimensional crop canopies is constrained by inadequate within-canopy deposition, off-target losses, and poor matching between operating parameters and target structure. This review synthesizes the technological evolution of intelligent agricultural spraying equipment from the perspectives of airflow-assisted transport, demand-based dose allocation, target sensing, actuation control, system integration, and performance evaluation. Air-assisted spraying has expanded transport regulation from hydraulic output alone to coordinated airflow–droplet–canopy interactions. Variable-rate and prescription approaches subsequently linked dose allocation to measurable spatial differences in canopy structure and target distribution. Ultrasonic sensing, light detection and ranging (LiDAR), red–green–blue depth (RGB-D) imaging, machine vision, and multimodal perception have increased the spatial and semantic resolution of target representation. Pulse width modulation (PWM), fuzzy control, and data-driven methods have improved nozzle-level actuation and compensation for nonlinear hydraulic dynamics. However, closed-loop actuator or navigation should not be conflated with closed-loop control of application quality: deposition, drift, and biological efficacy are still evaluated mainly after operation and are rarely used as real-time feedback variables. Current limitations arise less from the absence of individual sensing or control technologies than from weak coupling among canopy representation, spray transport, multivariable actuation, and performance feedback. Future development should prioritize transferable multiscale models and explicit coordination of liquid flow, airflow, droplet size, speed, and equipment state. Scenario-specific architectures must connect sensing, decision-making, actuation, and evaluation without sacrificing field robustness.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181776

Authors: Hideki Nakata Seiichi Ogata

Agrivoltaic systems (AVSs) present a promising solution to land-use conflicts between solar photovoltaics and agriculture. Nevertheless, their electricity-side cost performance is strongly influenced by site-specific conditions and agricultural constraints, and a comprehensive nationwide geospatial assessment of optimal designs under agronomic light constraints remains lacking. To address this gap, we developed a GIS-based techno-economic framework for Japan to identify site-specific optimal designs by minimizing the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) while satisfying crop light requirements represented by target Daily Light Integral (DLI) values. The analysis indicates a national average LCOE of 0.1021 EUR kWh−1 for optimized AVSs, with lower electricity-side costs in central to southwestern regions characterized by high solar irradiance. The optimal design, particularly the projected ground coverage ratio (average: 30.38%), varied considerably across the country to balance power generation and crop light availability. Scenario and sensitivity analyses revealed that LCOE is highly sensitive to crop light requirements, whereas PV system efficiency and capital expenditure are the most influential cost drivers. This study provides the first high-resolution, nation-scale LCOE map for AVS in Japan derived through grid-level design optimization under explicit DLI-based constraints, offering a quantitative screening-level foundation for region-specific deployment planning.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181775

Authors: Ibrahim A. Abdelfadeel Khaled D. Alotaibi Fahad N. Alkoiak

The sustainable management of olive pomace (OP) residues remains a major environmental challenge, requiring integrated strategies that enhance resource recovery while minimizing environmental impacts. This study evaluated the effects of OP-derived biochar (BC) produced at two pyrolysis temperatures (300 and 600 °C) and applied at two rates (5 and 10%, w/w) on composting performance and the physicochemical, biological, and nutrient characteristics of OP compost. Composting was initiated in a pilot-scale forced-aeration bioreactor to accelerate the decomposition of the composting mixture, after which the materials were transferred to indoor piles to complete the composting and maturation process. Two-way ANOVA showed that both BC pyrolysis temperature and application rate significantly affected several compost quality attributes, although their relative influence varied among the measured properties. The observed responses were consistent with differences in the physicochemical characteristics of the OP-derived BC resulting from the pyrolysis conditions. Compared with BC produced at 300 °C, BC produced at 600 °C significantly reduced moisture content (MC) from 17.81 to 11.44%, decreased bulk density (BD) from 0.69 to 0.52 g cm−3, increased organic matter (OM) from 70.61 to 82.78%, and raised compost pH from 7.67 to 8.43 (p < 0.001), and reduced microbial respiration from 2.00 to 1.60 CO2 g−1 OM day−1 (p = 0.0270). Increasing the BC application rate from 5 to 10% significantly enhanced nitrogen (N) (1.64–1.79%), phosphorus (P) (0.57–0.67%), ammonium (NH4+) (162–214 mg kg−1), nitrate (NO3−) (42.98–52.42 mg kg−1), sulfur (S) (0.35–0.39%), and compost stability index (SI). Overall, the higher BC application rate, particularly when combined with BC produced at 600 °C, generally resulted in the most favourable compost characteristics, although several responses were statistically comparable with those obtained using BC produced at 300 °C and applied at 10%. Germination indices of 97.5–135.8% indicated that the final composts exhibited low phytotoxicity and generally mature. These findings indicate that integrating OP-derived BC into OP composting can improve the quality and stability of the resulting compost while providing an integrated strategy for the valorization of within circular bioeconomy approach.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181773

Authors: Rajkaranbir Singh Yaslin Gonzalez Julia Barra Netto-Ferreira Margaret Fernando Noah Long Gabriel Maltais-Landry

Organic systems rely on nitrogen (N) supplied through organic sources that must be mineralized before uptake. The timing and rate of N release are often difficult to synchronize with crop demand, especially for short-duration crops like bok choy. We evaluated the response of bok choy to N rates in Florida sandy soils using five N rates (0, 56, 112, 168, and 224 kg N ha−1) in a randomized complete block design. Yield, N uptake, apparent N recovery, N balances, and in-season crop indicators (SPAD, sap nitrate) were measured across three years. N applications significantly increased yield in 2023 and 2025 (with no significant differences in yield above 112 kg N ha−1), but not in 2024, highlighting the variability in crop response, likely due to environmental conditions. Higher N rates increased plant N accumulation but reduced N recovery and increased N surpluses, indicating a greater potential for N losses. SPAD and sap nitrate measurements were positively related to yield and could be used as rapid indicators of in-season crop N status, with SPAD having the advantage of being non-destructive. Overall, these findings help to optimize N management to better match crop demand in organic leafy green production systems, improving productivity while minimizing environmental costs.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181774

Authors: Xi Chen Naize Mu Lingshan Ren Xiaoxuan Guo Jianwei Li Yan Wang Bowei Jia Xiaoli Sun Mingzhe Sun

The Oxidative Stress 3 (OXS3) gene family encodes plant-specific proteins that play crucial roles in abiotic stress tolerance and chromatin remodeling. However, genome-wide identification and characterization of the OXS3 gene family in soybean have not been systematically conducted. Here, we identified 19 GmOXS3 genes from the soybean genome. Phylogenetic analysis assigned these genes to three subfamilies (I–III). Members within the same subfamily exhibited conserved motif compositions. The promoter regions of GmOXS3 genes contained various cis-acting regulatory elements associated with stress and phytohormone responses. Analysis of transcriptome data revealed that GmOXS3 genes exhibited different expression patterns in various organs. RT-qPCR further confirmed their differential expression under salt and alkaline stresses, with the most pronounced up-regulation observed for GmOXS3-1 and GmOXS3-14 under alkaline stress. Among them, GmOXS3-1 was further characterized, and it negatively regulates alkaline tolerance in soybean hairy roots. These results provide a foundation for elucidating GmOXS3-1-mediated alkaline stress signaling and highlight its potential as a breeding target for improving alkaline tolerance.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181772

Authors: Bingyi Tao Ren He Tingting Huang Zijun Chen Wei Liu Wenjie Yu Shaoxiong Liang Hongkun Chen Xiaoping Rao Xuchong Tang Jianchun Jiang

This study aimed to enhance the enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency of bamboo shoot shell (BSS) and establish a high solid loading fed-batch enzymatic hydrolysis strategy for pretreated BSS. BSS was pretreated with five alkaline reagents (NaOH, KOH, NaHCO3, CH3COONa, and Na2SO3). NaOH demonstrated the best enzymatic performance, with glucose and xylose yields of 96.55% and 86.56% at 2% (w/v) solid loading, respectively. Based on this outcome, NaOH pretreatment conditions were further optimized, with 3% NaOH at 110 °C for 60 min identified as optimal. The yields of glucose and xylose under this condition were 98.11% and 93.64%, respectively. The hydrolysis kinetics of NaOH-pretreated BSS were analyzed using fractal kinetic modeling to understand its hydrolysis characteristics. This analysis indicated that a solid loading effect became apparent above 12.5% (w/v). Subsequently, the simplex-centroid mixture design was employed to optimize feeding ratios at 6 h, 12 h, 24 h, and 36 h to obtain maximum sugar concentration at an initial solid loading of 20% (w/v) and a final solid loading of 40% (w/v). The total sugar concentration reached 249.55 g·L−1 in the optimal fed-batch strategy by this model, which was higher than that of 225.91 g·L−1 in the batch group. When the solid loading was further increased to 45% (w/v), the total sugar concentration reached 269.49 g·L−1. Notably, the above strategy is limited by an enzyme loading of 15 FPU·g−1 glucan and product inhibition at high solid loading, with industrial scalability still needing further exploration. Overall, this model demonstrated significant potential for increasing the sugar concentration in fed-batch strategies for pretreated biomass.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181771

Authors: Jared P. Conner Sophie E. Drew Steven G. McBride Harry W. Groot J. E. Barrett

Biochar can increase soil carbon (C) and nutrient retention, but application of raw biochar may reduce inorganic nitrogen (N) availability and crop yields. As a result, biochar is sometimes co-applied with organic fertilizers, though the efficacy of this practice for preventing decreases in inorganic N remains unclear. We examined how applications of hardwood, hay, and softwood biochars (25 Mg ha−1), with and without blood meal co-application, affected C and N dynamics in a Southwest Virginia pasture soil. All biochars increased soil C pools initially and after 11 months. Biochar C accumulated in the coarse particulate organic matter fraction, with hay and softwood biochar C also accumulating in the fine particulate and mineral-associated fractions, respectively. Immediately after application, inorganic N was increased by blood meal co-application, but biochar had no short-term effect on inorganic N. Conversely, nitrate levels were ~81% lower in biochar-amended plots after 11 months, regardless of blood meal co-application and biochar feedstock. These findings suggest that co-application with organic fertilizer may only provide short-term N benefits, highlighting the need to monitor crop yield and N status in seasons following biochar application, as soil test nitrate alone is not a reliable predictor of crop yield in biochar-amended soils.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181770

Authors: Anna Paszkiewicz-Jasińska Barbara Wróbel Wojciech Stopa Zuzanna Jakubowska Jakub Dobrzyński

An important component of sustainable agriculture is the development of strategies that reduce the use of mineral fertilizers while maintaining high crop productivity. One promising approach is the application of plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB), which may support plant development and improve nutrient use efficiency. A field experiment with winter wheat was conducted in south-western Poland during two growing seasons, 2023–2024 and 2024–2025, to evaluate the effect of inoculation with Priestia sp. KR219 under different nitrogen fertilization regimes. The experiment included three levels of nitrogen: 70, 91, and 130 kg N ha−1 (54%, 70%, and 100% of the full spring nitrogen fertilization rate) with and without bacterial application. Soil chemical and biological properties, photosynthetic pigment content, plant morphological traits, grain yield, as well as grain chemical composition and amino acid profile were evaluated. The inoculated treatments showed higher soil dehydrogenase activity in the second growing season and higher contents of selected photosynthetic pigments, particularly chlorophyll a, under reduced nitrogen fertilization. Bacterial inoculation was also associated with numerical increases in grain yield in most treatment combinations, although these differences were not statistically significant. Differences among treatment combinations involving nitrogen fertilization were more pronounced for grain chemical composition and amino acid profile than differences between inoculated and non-inoculated treatments at the same nitrogen level, with the full nitrogen rate generally resulting in the highest protein content and higher contents of several essential and non-essential amino acids. Overall, the responses observed following Priestia sp. KR219 inoculation included changes in selected soil and physiological parameters, while responses in grain yield and quality varied between growing seasons. Further studies under diverse environmental conditions are required to determine its agronomic potential.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181769

Authors: Zhenzhen Wang Chongfen Yi Hongwei Zhang Liugen Hao Yi Yan Zhanlie Yang

Heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) serves as a critical molecular chaperone governing environmental stress responses in insects. This study aimed to characterize the expression pattern of SfHSP70-8 and determine its functional role in thermotolerance and insecticide susceptibility in the white-backed planthopper, Sogatella furcifera. Here, we cloned and characterized SfHSP70-8, a cytosolic member of the HSP70 family from S. furcifera. The encoded protein contains characteristic conserved domains and shares close sequence identity with the HSP70 homolog of Laodelphax striatellus. Spatiotemporal expression profiling revealed ubiquitous transcription across all developmental stages, peaking in third-instar nymphs, and pronounced enrichment in the gut and fat body. Transcript levels were robustly elevated following exposure to both thermal extremes (10–40 °C) and LC50 concentrations of triflumezopyrim, sulfoxaflor, and imidacloprid. RNAi-mediated silencing of SfHSP70-8 significantly compromised tolerance to triflumezopyrim and sulfoxaflor while leaving imidacloprid susceptibility unchanged, and markedly decreased survival rates under chronic heat stress at 30 °C and 35 °C. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that SfHSP70-8 functions as an essential regulator of thermotolerance and insecticide adaptation in S. furcifera, offering a potential molecular target for future development in sustainable pest management.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181768

Authors: Shufen Zhou Bo Ling Zhongchun Chen Jianmin Chen

Hybrid rice outyields conventional rice, but the role of rhizosphere microbiome in this yield advantage remains unclear. We conducted a single-site field experiment to compare three hybrid rice cultivars with one conventional variety. We tested whether the hybrid rice cultivars were associated with distinct rhizosphere microbial consortia, and whether these consortia correlated with soil nutrient availability and yield. Our results showed that the hybrid cultivars produced significantly higher yields than the conventional variety. Rhizosphere soil was collected at booting and mature stages. We integrated 16S rRNA and metagenomic sequencing, soil physicochemical and enzyme activity analyses, and structural equation modeling to explore associations among rice genotype, microbial community, nutrient availability, and yield. Hybrid rice showed higher yield and 1000-grain weight (Yongyou-1540: 69.76 g/plant, 26.85 g). Genotype-associated differences in microbiome were strongest at booting: hybrids enriched Pseudomonadota and Chloroflexota but depleted Acidobacteriota; genera Geobacter, Anaeromyxobacter, and Burkholderiaceae were enriched. Hybrid rhizospheres had higher available phosphorus and potassium (Heliangyou-165: +62.8% P and +24.7% K at booting; +18.4% P and +350.8% K at maturity). Metagenomic profiling revealed a higher abundance of genes associated with nitrogen fixation, siderophore biosynthesis, and sulfur cycling pathways. Nitrogen fixation gene abundance correlated with alkali-hydrolyzable N (r = 0.66), siderophore biosynthesis with available P (r = 0.73), and sulfate respiration with available K (r = 0.61). Enzyme activities showed genotype-and stage-dependent patterns. Structural equation modeling supported a sequential association path: genotype → microbial community (β = 0.58) → soil nutrient composite (β = 0.52) → grain yield (β = 0.44). The indirect effect of genotype on yield via microbiome and nutrients was significant (β = 0.13), while the direct effect was not. The yield advantage observed in the tested hybrid cultivars was accompanied by cultivar-associated differences in rhizosphere microbiomes that correlate with enhanced nutrient bioavailability during critical growth stages. These correlative findings suggest a potential belowground ecological pathway linking cultivar identity, rhizosphere microbiome functional potential, nutrient availability, and yield; however, they do not demonstrate a causal role of the microbiome in the yield advantage of hybrid rice. Given the single-site, single-year design and the use of only one conventional control cultivar, these results should be considered preliminary and require validation across broader genotype panels and environments. Experimental validation is required to test the hypothesized microbial associations.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181767

Authors: Shaoli Zhang Haidong Li Keyu Li Lu Xie Kai Pan Shude Yang

Continuous monocropping of tomato causes soil degradation, secondary salinization, and yield decline. Mushroom–vegetable rotation coupled with spent mushroom substrate (SMS) incorporation offers a recycling strategy to mitigate these obstacles. Here, a five-stage progressive field experiment (2023–2025, Yantai, Shandong, China) was conducted to screen the optimal local configuration of Stropharia rugosoannulata–tomato rotation and reveal its soil improvement mechanisms. The combination of variety Nieyang and an apple woodchip-based substrate achieved the highest mushroom yield, with the substrate formula (F = 11.64, p = 0.0006) dominating productivity. Deep incorporation of SMS into the 0–20 cm plow layer (M treatment) avoided the seedling stress and mortality caused by surface mulching and increased the marketable yield of the large-fruited tomato R35 by 28.0% (79,560 kg·ha−1, p < 0.05) without altering fruit soluble solids (p = 0.611). Two consecutive rotation years increased soil organic carbon by 17.6% (from 3.29 to 3.87 g·kg−1) and total nitrogen by 243% (from 0.79 to 2.71 g·kg−1) and raised soil desalination efficiency from 33.5% to 56.2%, while soil EC and pH remained within the optimal range for tomato growth. Cross-regional verification showed universal regulation of soil pH and EC but background-dependent nutrient accumulation. The system improves soil fertility through mycelium-mediated biological desalination, progressive SMS-derived carbon pool accumulation, and complementary acid–base homeostasis, generating a net annual economic benefit of approximately 255,000 CNY·ha−1 (≈38,060 USD·ha−1). This recyclable rotation pattern is suitable for popularization in Jiaodong facility-grown tomato production.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181766

Authors: Alberto San Bautista

Crop productivity emerges from interacting processes of resource capture, biomass production, allocation, and yield formation. Final yield alone cannot identify which process limited production, when the limitation occurred, or whether additional inputs would improve performance. This narrative conceptual review synthesizes the foundational and recent literature selected thematically to cover the main physiological and agronomic processes linking crop growth with yield formation and management, including resource capture and biomass production, root–shoot coordination, source–sink relations, yield formation, productive potential, resource-use efficiency, and agronomic intervention. Similar yields can arise from different physiological pathways and therefore require different interventions, while root–shoot allocation and harvest index are context-dependent indicators rather than universal optimization targets. Yield potential should be defined for a genotype × environment × crop-cycle duration combination and used as a reference for diagnosing yield gaps. Sequential measurements can identify when deviations in crop development emerge and, when considered together with complementary crop, soil, environmental, and management indicators, can help distinguish among the processes that may be responsible. We propose a decision framework based on diagnosis, intervention, verification, and trade-off assessment, in which management is justified when it alleviates the identified limiting process while maintaining resource-use efficiency. This framework moves crop analysis from retrospective description toward process-based decision support for more efficient and sustainable agronomic management.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181764

Authors: Long Bai Jianfei Zhu Caishan Liu Keke Zhang Sibo Yang Yushuo Chen

Accurate perception of eggplant fruits and stems remains challenging for greenhouse harvesting robots because illumination changes, foliage occlusion, fruit overlap, and background branches can degrade target visibility, particularly for small and curved stems. To improve joint fruit-and-stem detection under these conditions, this study develops an enhanced YOLOv8n model using a greenhouse dataset collected across different illumination levels, viewpoints, occlusion degrees, and fruit-overlap situations. The baseline network was modified in three aspects. Selected conventional convolutions in the backbone and neck were replaced by Omni-Dimensional Dynamic Convolution (ODConv) to improve feature adaptation to targets with different scales and shapes. Efficient Multi-Scale Attention (EMA) was placed after the SPPF module to emphasize informative responses from fruit and stem regions while reducing background interference. In addition, C2f_MSBlock was incorporated into the neck to strengthen multi-scale feature representation and fusion. The resulting model achieved 96.4% precision, 97.2% recall, 99.0% mAP@0.5, and 86.0% mAP@0.5:0.95, with 3.74 M parameters, 6.5 GFLOPs, and a model size of 7.9 MB. Relative to the original YOLOv8n, these four detection metrics increased by 2.2, 0.3, 0.5, and 2.9 percentage points, respectively, while GFLOPs decreased by 16.7%. These results indicate that the modified model improves detection robustness in complex greenhouse scenes while maintaining moderate computational requirements, providing a feasible visual perception approach for eggplant fruit recognition and stem localization in robotic harvesting.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181765

Authors: Nikolaos Theotokatos Paraskevi Londra Andreas Efstratiadis

This study investigates the water–energy nexus in vineyards adopting innovative practices, focusing on water management through rainwater harvesting systems and the installation of photovoltaic panels for renewable energy production. The research focuses on two regions in Greece, Nemea in Corinthia and Nea Anchialos in Magnesia, using historical time series of meteorological data to establish water and energy balances. The study aims to examine the practical use of these technologies to improve water and energy efficiency in grape and wine production, which are important parts of the country’s primary sector. A daily water balance model is applied to estimate the required storage capacity of rainwater tanks for irrigation use in vine cultivation, using daily rainfall and evapotranspiration data over 20 hydrological years (2001/02–2020/21). Additionally, the installation of photovoltaic panels covering a specific percentage of the total utilized area in the study parcels is examined. The analysis showed that the use of a rainwater collection system with a catchment area of 500 m2 for crop areas from 500 to 10,000 m2 and using rainwater tanks from 10 to 200 m3 can ensure demand coverage rates from 60% to 95%. The production of green energy through the panels ranges from 149 to 156 MWh per year.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181763

Authors: Zhengxuan Wei Wende Chen Jie Ran Zhijia Wang Yuelin Wang

In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the influence of climate change on the distribution and spread of invasive species. However, projections of the future distributions of invasive Ipomoea species remain limited, despite their strong reproductive capacity, ecological adaptability, and competitive ability. In this study, 34 environmental variables were initially considered, and highly correlated variables were removed before fitting Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) models, with model settings selected according to species-specific sample sizes, to predict the potential distributions of five invasive Ipomoea species (Ipomoea nil, Ipomoea purpurea, Ipomoea quamoclit, Ipomoea lacunosa, and Ipomoea alba) across China under current and future climate scenarios (SSP126, SSP370, and SSP585). Model performance and the contributions of environmental variables were evaluated, and changes in suitable areas and distribution centroids were compared among climate scenarios. All five models showed high predictive performance, with AUC values exceeding 0.9. Snow cover days (SCD) was the main predictor for I. nil and I. purpurea, while Bio9, elevation, and Bio11 were the dominant predictors for I. quamoclit, I. lacunosa, and I. alba, respectively. Compared with the baseline climate period (1981–2010), suitable areas for all five species were projected to expand under future climate scenarios, with varying shifts in distribution centroids. These results indicate that climate warming may increase the potential invasion risk and ecological impacts of invasive Ipomoea species in China, highlighting the need for strengthened monitoring and management to support biodiversity conservation.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181762

Authors: Li Li Yao Tian Guoqing Mao Tingyu Yu Qian Huang Linhua Yu Xiang Zhu Junkai Li

The phloem mobility of fungicides is a highly advantageous property for controlling plant root and vascular diseases. In order to develop phloem-mobile fungicides with enhanced antifungal activity, a new pesticide vectorization strategy was proposed for using exogenous compounds as vector groups in this study. Nine novel PCA amide derivatives containing heterocyclic carboxylic acids were designed and synthesized by coupling PCA with a heterocyclic carboxylic acid via an amide linkage. In vitro bioassays revealed that nine target compounds exhibited moderate to strong antifungal activity against the tested fungal pathogens. Notably, compound D4 demonstrated superior inhibitory effects against multiple pathogenic fungi. The results of phloem mobility tests demonstrated that five target compounds, D1, D2, D4, D7, and D9, exhibited phloem mobility, which is consistent with possible carrier-mediated transport. In pot experiments, compound D4 exhibited significantly better protective and curative efficacy against rice sheath blight than PCA, a benefit that may stem from its phloem mobility. Further systemic translocation studies in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) confirmed that compound D4 is readily absorbed by leaves and efficiently distributed throughout the plant, with pronounced accumulation in roots and stems. This translocation pattern may play a significant role in improving the effectiveness of compound D4 in controlling root and vascular diseases.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181761

Authors: Yuxi Chai Xinyue Zhang Jian Long Hanchi Hao Haijin Fan Rujing He Hongbo Hou Peiqin Peng

Cadmium (Cd) contamination in paddy soils poses health risks, yet the role of aggregate-scale Cd binding remains poorly understood under interactive agricultural management. Unlike primary textural separates that are fixed by parent material, aggregates are dynamic and manageable. This study investigates the interactive effects of parent material, water regime shifts in annual tobacco–rice rotation, and chlorine-containing fertilizers on aggregate stability, carbon/nitrogen sequestration, and cadmium (Cd) adsorption in paddy soils from subtropical paddy fields of Hunan Province, South China. Two paddy soils, Masaniutan (granite-derived sandy loam) and Shanniutan (slate/shale-derived clayey soil), were divided into four size classes. Selective removal of soil organic carbon (SOC) and free iron oxides (Fed), followed by Cd adsorption experiments. Shanniutan had greater aggregate stability than Masaniutan. Water regime shifts did not significantly alter aggregate structure. Chlorine fertilizers disrupted aggregates, increasing finer fractions. Cd adsorption rose as aggregate size decreased. SOC removal reduced the maximum adsorption capacity (qm) by 36.8%, while Fed played a supporting role. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) revealed that parent material had a strong positive direct effect on aggregate stability (path coefficient = 2.346), while chlorine fertilization (−0.750) and water regime shifts (−0.344) had negative effects. Parent material, water regime shifts, and fertilization jointly influence aggregate stability and the distribution of cementing agents, thereby controlling Cd adsorption capacity—with SOC as the dominant factor. These findings provide a basis for sustainable paddy soil management by promoting SOC retention and avoiding excessive chloride inputs.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181760

Authors: Yangbin Li Linjing Wei

To address storage, computational, and latency constraints in cotton-field robots and variable-rate spraying, this study proposes CQ-RT-DETR with a two-stage design of structural compression and training-time query calibration. First, the hidden dimension of RT-DETRv2 is reduced from 256 to 192 and the number of object queries from 300 to 100, forming the lightweight B_Lite baseline. Next, the Scale-Reliability-Guided Trajectory-Consistent Competition Margin (SR-TCCM) mechanism selects persistent competing queries using cross-layer IoU trajectories and applies a budget-constrained adaptive margin based on object scale and the winner query’s localization advantage. Across five random seeds on the test set, the mean AP50–95 values of RT-DETRv2, B_Lite, and CQ-RT-DETR are 0.8867, 0.8691, and 0.8892, respectively. CQ-RT-DETR improves AP50–95 by 2.01 percentage points over B_Lite and achieves accuracy comparable to the original RT-DETRv2, while reducing the parameter count and GFLOPs by 16.93% and 23.38%, respectively. In FP16 RKNN model-level forward-pass tests on an RK3576 platform, mean latency is 54.57% lower than for RT-DETRv2, and FPS increases from 6.69 to 14.7. These results show that CQ-RT-DETR recovers the compression-induced accuracy loss without increasing inference-graph complexity and provides a favorable accuracy–efficiency trade-off.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181759

Authors: Fenglei Sun Hanning Liu Ni Yang Haihong Chen Yajun Liang Zhaolong Gong Shiwei Geng Huijie Liu Shuaishuai Qian Xueyuan Li Junduo Wang Juyun Zheng

The root phenotype of cotton seedlings serves as a criterion for selecting high-vigour varieties, yet systematic evaluations of Upland Cotton germplasm resources remain limited. We measured nine root- and shoot-related traits in 204 Gossypium hirsutum accessions from diverse ecological regions. Correlation analysis revealed that root surface area, volume, and fresh weight were closely interrelated indicators. Principal component analysis extracted two biologically meaningful factors—‘absorptive capacity’ and ‘morphological strategy’—with a cumulative contribution of 55.72%. Cluster analysis classified the accessions into three functional groups: high-yield potential (n = 15), balanced adaptation (n = 135), and fine-root dominance (n = 54). These clusters corresponded with ecological origins and breeding periods, reflecting local adaptation. We propose root surface area, volume, and fresh weight as cost-effective screening indicators and identified 15 elite accessions as potential parents for root-centred breeding. These findings are particularly relevant for the arid production environments of Northwestern China.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181758

Authors: Bing Geng Jinbo Gao Yujie Ren Yaru Dong Guang Guo Zhaohong Wang Dongxiao Zhao

The shortage of high-quality forage and the need for alternative protein sources are critical challenges for livestock production in northern China, where cold winters and saline–alkaline soils limit crop options. Mulberry (Morusalba L.) is a promising high-protein forage, yet few varieties have been bred for these conditions. Here, we report the breeding of ‘Fengyuan No. 1’, developed through systematic evaluation of 31 mulberry accessions for five forage traits, followed by a 4 × 3 factorial crossing design using four female parents (‘8036’, ‘Dahongpao’, ‘Jinqiang 63’, ‘Hongguo 2’) and three male parents (‘Nongsang 14’, ‘Yu 2’, ‘Yiyuan Huanglu’) selected based on comprehensive evaluation and complementary agronomic traits. Among the nine hybrid families with sufficient seed, family X01 (‘8036’ × ‘Nongsang 14’) ranked first in a three-year (2011–2013) comprehensive evaluation of growth traits using membership function analysis and was subsequently named ‘Fengyuan No. 1’. Multi-location (Shandong, Anhui, Shaanxi) field trials (2018–2021) with ‘Fengchi’ as the control showed that ‘Fengyuan No. 1’ achieved an average annual leaf yield of 12,596.48 kg DM·ha−1 (+14.20%) and total branch–leaf biomass of 25,341.95 kg DM·ha−1 (+13.36%). Leaf crude protein reached 30.87% on a dry matter basis (+25.64% vs. control). Silage prepared from this variety exhibited excellent fermentation quality (pH 4.10) and a relative feed value of 272.46, exceeding alfalfa silage standards. The variety maintained 100% survival at 0.4% NaCl and a 13.74% biomass advantage over the control on saline–alkaline field soils, with winter-desiccated shoot tips reduced by 53%. These results establish ‘Fengyuan No. 1’ as an elite forage mulberry for the Yellow River Basin and similar ecoregions.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181757

Authors: Thiago Lima Deoclécio Domingos Garbuglio Júlio César DoVale Roberto Fritsche-Neto

Corn stunt is one of the most important diseases affecting maize (Zea mays L.) production in tropical regions of the Americas. The disease is caused by a complex of pathogens transmitted by the corn leafhopper (Dalbulus maidis), and its predominantly quantitative inheritance complicates the identification of tolerant genotypes under field conditions. In this context, we aimed to perform a comprehensive phenotypic stratification of corn stunt tolerance in a tropical public maize diversity panel and to identify contrasting inbred lines for breeding and genetic studies. A total of 360 inbred lines were evaluated under natural infection using three complementary disease-response traits: survivor plant health score (SPHS), proportion of survivor plants (PSP), and whole-plant health score (WPHS). Multi-trait mixed-model analyses revealed significant genotypic variation, moderate to high broad-sense heritability, and significant genotype × environment interactions for all evaluated traits. A multi-trait index (MSI), calculated from standardized best linear unbiased predictions (BLUPs), successfully integrated the three phenotypic components and enabled robust stratification of the diversity panel, identifying 60 highly tolerant and 60 highly susceptible inbred lines. Further, a genomic principal component analysis demonstrated that these phenotypic extremes were distributed across both tropical and subtropical germplasm, indicating that tolerance is not restricted to a single genetic background. The proposed phenotypic framework provides a robust and reproducible strategy for characterizing quantitative disease tolerance, identifying valuable parental germplasm, and establishing well-defined phenotypic extremes for future investigations of the genetic architecture of corn stunt tolerance.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181756

Authors: Shuang Li Litao Yi Shaoxian Liu Han Lv Aiping Yin Qingtao Zeng Xiaonian Jing Nanqing Ma Chaofeng Li

Cytokinin signaling is essential for plant growth, development, and responses to environmental stresses. As key transcription factors in this pathway, type-B response regulators (ARR-Bs) activate the expression of primary cytokinin-responsive genes. However, the systematic identification of the ARR-B family in maize and its functional roles in responses to phosphorus (P) nutritional stress remain largely unclear. In this study, the maize ARR-B (ZmARR-B) transcription factor family was systematically identified and comprehensively characterized at the genome-wide level. A total of 12 ZmARR-B genes were identified and comprehensively characterized in terms of chromosomal localization, physicochemical properties, protein structure, phylogenetic relationships, gene organization, conserved motifs, promoter cis-regulatory elements, and collinearity. Based on systematic measurements of leaf inorganic phosphate (Pi) concentrations in 70 maize inbred lines from southwestern China, the lines 082, B73, and Ye107 were selected as representative materials. By integrating long-term (14 d) and short-term (0.5–12 h) low-P treatments with transcriptome sequencing and qRT-PCR validation, we systematically characterized the expression dynamics of ZmARR-B family members under P deficiency. The results showed that ZmARR-B genes exhibited markedly differentiated low-P-responsive expression patterns among distinct genetic backgrounds. ZmARR-B03 was transiently induced during the early phase of low-P treatment (0–6 h), followed by a rapid decline in transcript abundance. This characteristic pulse-like expression pattern suggests that ZmARR-B03 may function as a rapid-response regulator during early P-starvation signal transduction. In contrast, ZmARR-B06 exhibited sustained transcriptional upregulation throughout the low-P treatment period, suggesting a potential role in long-term adaptive regulation under P-deficient conditions. Notably, the number of low-P-responsive ZmARR-B members was significantly greater in the P-efficient inbred line 082 than in the P-sensitive line Ye107, indicating that ZmARR-B-mediated P-starvation responses are strongly genotype dependent. This study provides an important foundation for elucidating the molecular mechanisms by which cytokinin signaling, through type-B ARRs, regulates phosphate nutritional adaptation in maize. It also identifies potential candidate genes for the genetic improvement of P-efficient maize germplasm.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181755

Authors: Shuang Wang Tao Yang Jiejun Xi Zhi’e Hu Mouliang Xiao Zhenhua Zhang Ziwei Zhao

Cellulose-derived carbon inputs to paddy soils have increased with the widespread adoption of straw return as a sustainable rice cultivation practice. However, the effect of cellulose-derived carbon inputs on photosynthesized C allocation from aboveground to belowground and the utilization of the photosynthesized C by soil microbial groups remain poorly understood. In this study, using continuous 13CO2 labeling, 13C allocated to the above- and belowground C pools was measured to study the effects of cellulose and nitrogen fertilization on photosynthetic dynamics and microbial rhizodeposit utilization. Cellulose, nitrogen, and combined fertilization of cellulose and nitrogen promoted the allocation of photosynthates to the shoots. The combined fertilization of cellulose and nitrogen maximally decreased the allocation of photosynthesized C in the belowground C pools, including roots, soil organic matter, dissolved organic C, microbial biomass C, and phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs), leading to a dominant microbial community that utilized the rhizodeposit shift by different fertilization practices. Cellulose or nitrogen fertilization increased the percentage of 13C in the Gram-positive (G+) (a15:0, i15:0, and i16:0) and Gram-negative (G−) (17:1ω8c) groups, while the combined fertilization of cellulose and nitrogen stimulated the G+ (a17:0), actinomycetes (10Me16:0 and 10Me18:0), fungi (18:1ω9c), and anaerobes (cy19:0) groups. Moreover, cellulose promoted the incorporation of rhizodeposits into soil macro-aggregates, thereby decreasing the utilization of rhizodeposits by microorganisms (13C-PLFA). The findings of this study suggest that under the prevalent practice of cellulose-derived C and N fertilization inputs, belowground photosynthetic C allocation and microbial utilization may decrease, potentially facilitating the retention of rhizodeposit-derived C in paddy soils.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181754

Authors: Ning Jiang Manwen Zhang Yibo Wang Xiaotong Gai Canhua Lu Zuqing Hu

Chilli veinal mottle virus (ChiVMV, Potyvirus capsivenamaculae) is an emerging potyvirus threatening tobacco production in China, but its transmission biology remains poorly understood. Here, we molecularly characterized a ChiVMV isolate based on the coat protein (CP) gene from tobacco collected in Huaping, Yunnan Province, China. The CP gene consisted of 861 nucleotides encoding 286 amino acids and shared 95.25% identity with global isolates. Phylogenetic analysis placed the isolate within the Yunnan clade. We systematically investigated the effects of acquisition access period (AAP), inoculation access period (IAP), vector density, and temperature on transmission efficiency by Myzus persicae. qPCR assays revealed that a 5 min AAP was sufficient to achieve a viral load comparable to the maximum, whereas extending the AAP to 20 min resulted in reduced acquisition. Viral load in aphids declined progressively after acquisition, with residual amounts at 0.5 h, 1 h, 12 h, and 24 h post-acquisition representing 37.5%, 21.3%, 5.6%, and 2.9% of the initial copy number per aphid, respectively. Transmission assays showed that the highest efficiency was achieved under the tested conditions with an AAP of 5 min, an IAP of 24 h, a density of 5 aphids per plant, and a temperature of 25 °C. A significant interference between AAP and IAP was also observed. These findings provide insights into ChiVMV epidemiology and establish standardized conditions for resistance screening and transmission studies.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181753

Authors: Shuguang Li Mengmeng Fu Yaqi Wang Xiwen Yu Zhixin Zhao Jinming Zhao Na Guo Haifeng Xu

Seed oil content is one of the primary breeding objectives in soybean. However, the genetic basis of seed oil content remains largely unexplored. In this study, we employed a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population consisting of 201 lines derived from a cross between Feidong and Guanyun, to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for seed oil content in soybean under five environments. High broad-sense heritability (92.34%) indicates a substantial genetic contribution to phenotypic variation in this population and set of environments. A high-density genetic map containing 11,220 SNP markers was constructed, spanning 2507.62 cM, with an average distance of 0.22 cM between markers. By jointly using five QTL mapping methods, a total of 24 QTLs for seed oil content were identified, including eight stable QTLs detected in at least three environments and seven QTLs identified by all five methods. Out of these QTLs, qOil-5-4, qOil-9-2 and qOil-10-3 were considered as the major and stable QTLs. Within these three major and stable QTL intervals, except that Glyma.05g244100 (GmMFT/GmST05) is an experimentally validated gene, the other six genes that were highly expressed during seed development stages were identified as putative candidate genes requiring further validation. In conclusion, the major stable QTLs and candidate genes identified in this study facilitate the dissection of the genetic architecture underlying seed oil content and hold great potential for application in developing new high-oil soybean cultivars after further fine mapping and validation in independent genetic backgrounds.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181752

Authors: Michael Foredapwa Joel Bartłomiej Glina

There was an error in the original publication [...]

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181751

Authors: Yunxia Li Hongtai Kou Hao Kong Miao Fang Guanyu Luo Chenglin Yang Junliang Fan

Optimizing irrigation amount and frequency is critical for maize production in arid sandy loam soils, which are characterized by severe water scarcity and high leaching risks. This study aimed to determine the physiological and multi-objective synergistic responses of spring maize to different drip irrigation regimes in the sandy soil region of Southern Xinjiang and to identify the optimal water management strategy. A two-year field experiment evaluated four irrigation amounts (W1: 350 mm, W2: 500 mm, W3: 650 mm, W4: 800 mm) combined with three irrigation frequencies (F4: 4-day, F7: 7-day, F10: 10-day intervals). The results indicated that increasing irrigation amount and frequency generally improved canopy physiological performance (leaf area index, SPAD values, net photosynthetic rates, and photosystem II photochemical efficiency), though the response magnitudes varied among specific physiological parameters and irrigation levels. Grain yield increased with irrigation amount and was highest at 800 mm under F4 or F7 frequency; however, excessive water inputs led to reduced water productivity. Conversely, nutrient use efficiencies for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium exhibited a parabolic response, reaching their maxima under W3 (650 mm) and F7 (7-day interval). To reconcile the trade-offs between maximum productivity and resource conservation, the entropy weight method coupled with TOPSIS (EWM-TOPSIS) was applied. The results showed that grain yield and water productivity were the dominant indicators determining overall system efficacy, with the W3F7 treatment consistently achieving the highest relative closeness (over 76%) to the ideal solution in both years. While this optimal recommendation relies on the multi-criteria weighting framework of the EWM-TOPSIS model, integrating a 650 mm irrigation quota with a 7-day interval offers a practical agronomic strategy to balance yield, water productivity, and nutrient efficiency in arid agroecosystems.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181749

Authors: Tsvetina Nikolova Elena Shopova Liliana Brankova Zornitsa Katerova Iskren Sergiev Ivo Yanashkov Dessislava Todorova

Our study investigated the protective effects of seed priming with 5mM polyamine spermine (Spm) on the biochemical and transcriptional responses of winter wheat during Fusarium culmorum infection. We tested the effects of the priming in two age groups of plants via two pathogen infection approaches. In the seed-inoculated plants, infection with F. culmorum induced severe cellular damage and oxidative stress, as evidenced by increase in electrolyte leakage, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, and hydrogen peroxide levels. The pathogen also triggered metabolic changes in the plants by elevating reducing sugars, free proline, total osmotically active solutes and peroxidase activity, while at the same time suppressing the activity of catalase. On the other hand, the 5 mM Spm seed priming significantly mitigated this pathogen-induced damage. The priming effectively lowered most oxidative stress biomarkers and reduced the over-accumulation of osmolytes. Spm also restored the suppressed catalase activity, stabilized superoxide dismutase activity and altered the pathogen-mediated transcriptional response of the tested defence enzymes. Furthermore, spermine priming enhanced glutathione S-transferase activity in infected 30-day-old plants. Overall, our findings demonstrate that 5 mM spermine seed priming modulates the physiological response to F. culmorum in wheat by optimizing antioxidant enzyme activity and returning the studied metabolic parameters to near control levels.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181750

Authors: Changgui Jiang Zhichong Wang Kang Zheng Xinqiu Lu Chenchen Gu Changyuan Zhai Shuo Yang Hui Zhao

View-dependent canopy gap fraction is a directional descriptor of canopy openness that provides structural information for characterizing fruit-tree canopy heterogeneity. However, existing LiDAR-based canopy characterization methods are limited in their stability for characterizing zone-specific variations in canopy occlusion. This study proposes a LiDAR point-cloud column projection method for estimating zone-specific view-dependent canopy gap fraction of fruit tree canopies. A flash LiDAR sensor and an RGB camera were used to acquire paired point-cloud and image data from a simulated fruit tree and real peach trees under matched viewing directions and consistent region-of-interest constraints. Image-derived canopy gap fraction, calculated from the blue-cloth background area in each 3 × 3 subregion, was used as the reference value. The proposed column projection method was compared with a regional volumetric occupancy method and a regional two-dimensional projection coverage method. Under the indoor method-development conditions, using 88 paired frames, the proposed method achieved a mean absolute error of 8.59%, a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.925, and a Spearman rank correlation coefficient of 0.914 relative to the image-derived reference values. In the preliminary semi-controlled outdoor evaluation using eight paired real-tree samples, the method achieved a mean absolute error of 10.48% and showed lower numerical errors and systematic bias than the two baseline methods. These results indicate that the proposed method can provide zone-specific view-dependent canopy gap fraction estimates that are more consistent with image-derived reference values under the tested conditions.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16181748

Authors: Risely Ferraz-Almeida Maíne Alves dos Santos Joane Lima Oliveira Valmir Freitas de Almeida

During sisal defibration, large amounts of residues are produced, classified as liquid (green juice) and solid (pulp/mucilage and broken fiber). Pulp/mucilage and broken fiber have been used for sisal fertilization by farmers in Brazil, but no studies have demonstrated the rates of solid residues needed to improve sisal production. The study demonstrated the effects of sisal residues (pulp and broken fiber) on the development of sisal seedlings in the region of Conceição do Coité, Bahia, Brazil, based on agro-circular economy principles. The study was developed using two scientific methods: (i) modeling of sisal residue production (pulp and broken fiber) in Bahia/Brazil, during recent years (2000–2024) and (ii) an outdoor pot experiment testing rates of dried sisal residue (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 L plant−1 of a mixture of pulp and broken fiber) on the development of sisal seedlings. Results showed that over the last decades, the annual residue production of pulp and broken fiber was 4.3 million tons year−1, with an accumulated production of 107.8 million tons between 2000 and 2024. The rates of sisal residues promoted the development of plants, increasing plant weight (from 29.7 to 247.4 g/plant), shoot (from 4.3 to 22.4 g/plant), and root (from 25.4 to 225.0 g/plant). Sisal seedlings produced more roots than shoots with applications of residues. The sisal residues fitted a linear response, indicating that increasing rates promoted sisal seedling growth. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the sisal sector produces a great volume of solid residues that can be used for sisal planting, promoting higher initial plant development and an agro-circular economy in Bahia, Brazil. Future studies could include data on sisal fertilization, circularity index, nutrient cycling, carbon footprint, water footprint, and benefits. Future studies should also test application rates across different soils, regions, temperatures, times, and other variations to increase the efficiency of residue use.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171747

Authors: Xiaokang Lv Shitong Zhang Xuejie Gao Qin Fang Hongguang Wang Dongxiao Li Jianning He Ruiqi Li

Excessive nitrogen (N) input and repeated shallow tillage constrain sustainable winter wheat production in the North China Plain. A two-year field experiment was conducted to compare rotary tillage, subsoiling, and no-tillage under N application rates of 120, 180, and 240 kg ha−1. Subsoiling generally increased grain yield, with yields under subsoiling at 180 kg N ha−1 (SN180) reaching 8129.64 and 7700.89 kg ha−1 in the two growing seasons, respectively, without significant differences from SN240, while reducing N input by 60 kg ha−1. SN180 favored post-anthesis dry matter accumulation and post-anthesis N uptake. Accordingly, it achieved partial factor productivity of applied N of 45.16 and 42.78 kg kg−1, and N uptake efficiencies ranging from 1.29 to 1.46 kg kg−1, which were higher than those under SN240 and other tillage practices at the same N rate. In 2023–2024, SN180 increased root length density at 20–40 cm by 41.8% and 59.7% and root dry weight density by 22.0% and 20.5% compared with rotary tillage and no-tillage, respectively. SN180 also maintained relatively high nitrate reductase and glutamine synthetase activities during the same growing season, although the responses varied among plant organs and growth stages. Under the conditions of this two-year field experiment, subsoiling combined with 180 kg N ha−1 achieved the most favorable balance between grain yield and N use performance among the treatments tested, indicating its potential as a management option for irrigated winter wheat production in the North China Plain.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171746

Authors: Benjapon Kunlanit Ratanaporn Poosathit Tuan Vu Dinh Patma Vityakon

Nitrogen (N) management is critical for improving rice productivity, but increasing N inputs may reduce N-use productivity when grain production does not increase proportionally. This study evaluated the effects of urea rate and application method on grain weight and partial factor productivity of N (PFPN) of rice (Oryza sativa L. cv. RD49) grown in low-fertility sandy loam soil under controlled greenhouse pot conditions. Three urea rates (0.53, 1.07, and 1.60 g pot−1) and two application methods—basal application (BD) and basal plus topdressing (BTD)—were evaluated across two growing seasons. Grain weight was significantly affected by urea rate, application method, and their interaction. The lowest urea rate (N1; 0.53 g pot−1) maintained grain weight comparable to the highest rate (N3; 1.60 g pot−1) while producing the highest harvest index and substantially greater PFPN. Grain weight exhibited a significant quadratic response to urea rate, whereas PFPN, calculated on the basis of total fertilizer N applied, showed significant linear and quadratic responses and declined markedly with increasing urea rate. BTD resulted in greater mean grain weight and PFPN than BD. These findings indicate that the lowest tested urea rate provided a favorable balance between grain production and fertilizer-N input under the conditions evaluated, while the greater grain weight and PFPN under BTD highlighted the importance of coordinating N rate and application timing. These findings provide a basis for targeted field validation of N rate and application timing for RD49 rice grown in low-fertility, coarse-textured soils.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171745

Authors: Jiarong Li Na Guo Xiaotong Duan Dun Ao Hui Yang Qiqi Wang Yuchen Li Cuiping Gao Zhenyi Li Yan Zhao

Auxin plays a positive role in plant responses to low-phosphorus stress. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying indole-3-acetic acid (IAA)-mediated responses to phosphorus deficiency in alfalfa remain poorly understood. Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) cultivar ‘Zhongmu No. 3’ was subjected to two treatments: normal phosphorus (NP, 1000 μM KH2PO4) and low phosphorus supplemented with 1 μM IAA (LP + IAA, 10 μM KH2PO4). Morphological traits, physiological parameters, transcriptomic profiles, and metabolite accumulation were analyzed at 48 h and 10 days following treatment. Compared with the NP group, plants in the LP + IAA group showed marked changes in growth-related traits. At 48 h, plant height increased by 34%, total root length was 1.24-fold that of the NP group, and lateral root number increased by 23.48%. After 10 days, root fresh weight increased by 28%, total root length was 1.25-fold that of the NP group, lateral root number increased by 36.58%, and root volume increased by 22.2%, whereas plant height, stem diameter, and shoot fresh weight remained comparable to those of the NP group. Root acid phosphatase activity was 114.8% higher than that of the NP group at 48 h. Transcriptome analysis identified 1274 and 2277 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the NP and LP + IAA groups at 48 h and 10 days, respectively. At 48 h, the up-regulated genes were amino phospholipid ATPase 9 and amino alcohol phosphotransferase 1, whereas phosphate transporter 1 and purple acid phosphatase 12 were up-regulated at 10 days. Metabolomic analysis identified 308 and 1296 differentially accumulated metabolites (DAMs) at 48 h and 10 days, respectively. Early responses were enriched in purine metabolism and involved (5′-phosphoribosyl)-5-formamido-4-imidazolecarboxamide (FAICAR), whereas prolonged treatment involved L-aspartic acid, adenine, and cAMP. Integrated analyses identified tryptophan metabolism, cysteine and methionine metabolism, glycerophospholipid metabolism, and plant hormone signal transduction as major regulatory pathways. CDP-choline accumulation and changes in lipid-remodeling genes further indicated enhanced membrane phospholipid remodeling. Overall, these results provide insight into the morphological, physiological, transcriptional, and metabolic responses of alfalfa to low phosphorus in the presence of exogenous IAA.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171744

Authors: Wubulihaire Wubuliaishan Baojian Ma Bangbang Chen Jijing Lin Zhenghao Wu

The Hotan rose, a high-value specialty crop cultivated in Xinjiang, exhibits pronouncedly non-uniform flowering phenology, which has historically necessitated labor-intensive manual harvesting. To date, however, no integrated framework has been reported that concurrently addresses lightweight visual perception, precise picking-point localization, and three-dimensional path planning for this specific crop. In this study, we develop L-SOP, an end-to-end continuous picking methodology tailored to the unique requirements of Hotan rose harvesting. At the perception stage, we introduce YOLOv11n-LPD-Seg, a lightweight segmentation model that incorporates a joint compression strategy combining global pruning with channel-wise distillation (CWD). This design improves the mAP@0.5 values for flowers and buds by 0.1 and 0.7 percentage points, respectively. It also reduces the model size from 6.1 MB to 2.4 MB, representing a 60.7% reduction, and decreases the computational cost from 10.2 GFLOPs to 6.8 GFLOPs, representing a 33.3% reduction. For picking point localization, we develop the MGRO-Loc algorithm, which integrates multiple geometric constraints to achieve accurate spatial positioning. The algorithm achieves mean absolute errors of 2.33 mm under indoor conditions and 2.84 mm under outdoor conditions. For path planning, we propose the OG-LKH algorithm, which replaces the conventional orthogonal polyline distance metric with an oblique gate-shaped distance measure and incorporates a multi-start strategy and a gate-aware heuristic search. Compared with the standard LKH algorithm, OG-LKH reduces the average path length by 23.5% while maintaining a computation time of 0.0117 s. Even in high-density scenarios involving 36 waypoints, its computation time is only 0.0387 s on edge-computing devices. These three modules work synergistically to form a complete solution for selective continuous rose picking. The proposed framework can be deployed on edge devices, providing a viable technological pathway toward efficient autonomous harvesting of Hotan rose flower and bud.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171743

Authors: Xue Li Xiaomin Wang Enxi Liu Lin Tang Bo Chen Xu Chen Zhen Yang Qinyu Zhang Senglin Zhu Bangxi Zhang

Cadmium and arsenic accumulation during soil-covered cultivation of Morchella sextelata limits its production in contaminated soils. Two Mg/Al-layered double hydroxide–biochar (LB) composites were prepared using grinding-assisted and coprecipitation procedures and denoted as LB1 and LB2, respectively. The composites were evaluated at 2% (w/w) through a 15 d soil incubation experiment and a staged basket-cultivation experiment with three independent replicates. During incubation, LB2 significantly decreased NH4H2PO4-extractable As and DTPA-extractable Cd by 28.6% and 29.1%, respectively. Sequential extraction showed that LB1 increased the operationally defined residual Cd fraction, whereas LB2 increased the oxidizable Cd fraction and produced the lowest extractable Cd and As concentrations. During cultivation, LB1 reduced total As accumulation in dry fruiting bodies by 53.9%, whereas LB2 reduced Cd accumulation by 40.0%. Amendment-induced changes in soil carbon fractions were associated with Cd and As partitioning and fruiting-body accumulation, although these correlations did not establish causality. The two as-prepared composites therefore produced distinct metal-specific responses under the tested conditions.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171741

Authors: Jiacheng Pu Junda Zhang Liqun Cai Fasih Ullah Haider

Regional assessment of soil fertility requires separating concentration dispersion from spatial dependence while recognizing the limits imposed by coarse regional surveys. We quantified soil organic matter (SOM), total nitrogen (TN), available phosphorus (AP), and available potassium (AK) in 638 topsoil samples (0–20 cm) from cultivated land in Wuwei, northwestern China. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, distributional diagnostics, isotropic semivariograms, and additional sensitivity analyses of drift, directionality, and spatial validation were used. Pooled coefficients of variation ranged from 57.8% to 97.3%, with AK showing the greatest dispersion. SOM and TN were strongly correlated (r = 0.954, p < 0.01). The strongest in-sample semivariogram fits were exponential for SOM, spherical for TN, and Gaussian for both AP and AK; nugget-to-sill ratios [C0/(C0 + C)] were 0.266–0.441. In a separate 373-record georeferenced sensitivity analysis, detrended directional practical-range ratios (larger/smaller) ranged from 1.17 to 1.92, and spatially blocked five-fold R2 values were markedly lower than random-fold values, especially for AP. Thus, directional structure and geographic transfer remain uncertain, and the empirical variogram fit does not establish predictive performance. The results provide a regional baseline for sampling prioritization, not field-scale fertilizer prescription.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171742

Authors: Xuqing Li Zekun Zhang Zhihe Hu Ligang Cui Long Li Tingxuan Wang Tian Yang

Under intensified climate change, improving yield estimation accuracy is essential for food security and precision agricultural management. This research aimed to enhance summer maize yield estimation accuracy. GF-1 imagery was used to derive vegetation indices for leaf area index (LAI) modeling; vegetation index–LAI models used partial least squares regression (PLSR), random forest (RF), extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), support vector regression (SVR), convolutional neural network (CNN), and categorical feature-enhanced gradient boosting (CatBoost). Retrieved summer maize LAI and measured soil moisture (SM) were assimilated into a calibrated World Food Studies (WOFOST) model using ensemble Kalman filtering (EnKF) and four-dimensional variational assimilation (4D-Var). The influence of ensemble size and assimilation period on the accuracy of yield simulations was analyzed. Results showed that all machine learning models effectively retrieved LAI, with CNN achieving the highest accuracy under the evaluation conditions of this study. Compared with the non-assimilation scenario, data assimilation significantly improved WOFOST-based maize yield estimation; EnKF performed best for yield estimation, whereas 4D-Var yielded slightly lower LAI simulation errors than EnKF under the experimental conditions of this study. Among the ensemble sizes evaluated, an ensemble size of 100 produced the lowest yield prediction error, while assimilation during the tasseling-to-grain-filling period resulted in lower yield prediction errors than continuous whole-growth-period assimilation under the conditions examined. Overall, data assimilation effectively improved WOFOST-based maize yield estimation and supported regional crop monitoring and precision agricultural management.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171738

Authors: Roseleen Sharma Iris Santos Stephanie Walker Omololu John Idowu Rajan Ghimire Barbara Hunter Danise Coon Ivette Guzman Yanyan Zhang April Ulery Xiufen Li

Integrated organic–inorganic soil amendments have been proposed as a strategy to improve soil fertility while maintaining crop productivity, yet their effects on seasonal nutrient dynamics and chile (Capsicum annuum L.) performance remain unclear. Two chile cultivars (‘NuMex Odyssey’, ‘NuMex Sandia Select’) were tested to evaluate the effects of organic and inorganic amendments on soil nutrient dynamics, chile vegetative growth, and fruit yield and dimensions across key growth stages. The amendments included an unamended control (CK), half-rate (CF) and full-rate (CFCF) chemical fertilizer, and three integrated amendments consisting of composted manure–biochar blend (CFMB), composted manure (CFM), and pea residues (CFP) applied at a 1:1 ratio with chemical fertilizer on a plant-available nitrogen (PAN) basis. CFCF produced the highest early-season availability of N, P, and K, whereas CFP and CFM provided a more gradual nutrient release pattern, maintaining PAN comparable to CFCF through flowering and sustaining P and K availability through harvest. ‘NuMex Sandia Select’ exhibited greater yield responsiveness to soil amendments, while ‘NuMex Odyssey’ produced fewer but higher dimension fruits. CFP maintained fruit yields comparable to CFCF while producing lower vegetative biomass. Correlation analyses showed that significant nutrient–plant relationships were concentrated at harvest, with soil NO3−-N associated with fruit number and NH4+-N with fruit dimensions. These findings indicate that partial substitution of mineral fertilizer with organic amendments may sustain nutrient availability and chile productivity while providing a more gradual nutrient release throughout the growing season.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171740

Authors: Lili Liu Jianpo Zhan Jianning Luo Caixia Luo Jiwei Chen Gangjun Zhao Yun Wang Haibin Wu Shaoli Huang

Stem diameter is an important agronomic trait determining plant architecture, lodging resistance and yield formation, yet its cytological and molecular mechanisms in the major cucurbit crop Luffa remain largely unclear. Herein, two Luffa inbred lines, S1174 (Luffa acutangula, thin stem) and P93075 (Luffa cylindrica, thick stem), were analyzed. Dynamic phenotyping uncovered a sigmoidal growth pattern with three key developmental stages: initiation (0 d), rapid growth (6 d), and maturation (20 d), during which P93075 consistently exhibited a significantly larger stem diameter than S1174 from 6 d onward. Anatomical analysis showed that P93075 displayed greater parenchyma cell size and vascular bundle area than S1174, suggesting that stem diameter variation is closely associated with parenchyma cell expansion and vascular bundle enlargement. Transcriptome profiling further identified 2611 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), mainly enriched in cell wall organization, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and hormone signaling pathways. Through temporal expression patterns of shared DEGs across developmental phases and co-expression network analysis, LacEXT3, encoding a cell wall extensin protein, was prioritized as a promising candidate gene associated with stem radial growth. Consistent with its markedly higher expression in P93075, heterologous overexpression of LacEXT3 in Arabidopsis resulted in increased stem diameter accompanied by reduced plant height. Overall, this study provides new insights into the developmental, cytological, and transcriptomic landscape underlying stem diameter variation in Luffa and offers a valuable resource for future investigation of the molecular mechanisms of stem thickening.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171739

Authors: Alexey A. Kudrinsky Olga A. Shapoval Maria T. Mukhina Dmitry M. Mikhaylov Georgii V. Lisichkin Yurii A. Krutyakov

The study evaluated the potential of low-dose foliar melatonin (MT) treatments to alleviate chilling injury in cucumber plants, with a particular focus on mimicking sudden spring frosts in open-field cultivation. Cucumber seedlings were sprayed with MT solutions at 0.1, 1, and 10 mg L−1 (0.4, 4, 40 µM respectively), then subjected to a controlled chilling regime (4 °C for 72 h). A set of biochemical and physiological parameters was assessed, including stem elongation, leaf area, tissue water content, photosynthetic pigment concentrations, malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) accumulation, antioxidant enzyme activities, and soluble carbohydrate profiles. In addition, the thermostable fraction of chlorophylls a and b was determined as an indicator of photosynthetic system integrity; this parameter substantially increased under MT treatment, particularly at 1 and 10 mg L−1, despite an overall reduction in total pigment content. The results demonstrated that MT pretreatment, especially at 1 mg L−1, significantly mitigated chilling-induced growth inhibition, preserved chloroplast integrity, and reduced membrane lipid peroxidation. Moreover, MT promoted the accumulation of osmo- and cryoprotective sugars, contributing to improved cellular homeostasis under low temperature. These key findings indicate that low-dose MT priming is a promising, nature-derived strategy to enhance the tolerance of cucumber to acute chilling events, supporting the development of sustainable and organic-friendly approaches for spring frost protection.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171737

Authors: Mengji Ge Xinni Jiang Qiuyu Lu Yixun Feng Yan Su Lexin Zheng Shuzan Wang Xiaomei Wang Xiuqing Wei Jiahui Xu Yuan Qin Xiaoping Niu

UDP-dependent glycosyltransferases (UGTs) are a large and diverse enzyme family involved in the modification and diversification of plant secondary metabolites, including flavonoids associated with fruit nutritional value and quality traits. However, the evolutionary organization of UGT families and their associations with flavonoid metabolism remain insufficiently characterized in tropical monocot fruit crops. Here, we performed a genome-wide characterization of the UGT family in pineapple (Ananas comosus) and integrated transcriptomic and metabolomic information to prioritize AcUGT candidates associated with flavonoid accumulation. A total of 68 AcUGT genes were identified and classified into 16 phylogenetic clades. Comparative genomic analyses demonstrated conserved syntenic relationships with other monocots, while tandem and segmental duplication contributed to AcUGT family expansion under predominant purifying selection. Structural analyses revealed conservation of the C-terminal plant secondary product glycosyltransferase (PSPG) motif involved in UDP-sugar recognition, whereas N-terminal sequence diversification distinguished AcUGT members. Promoter analysis identified cis-regulatory elements associated with hormone, developmental, environmental, and secondary metabolism responses. Integration of transcriptomic and metabolomic datasets revealed stage- and cultivar-associated AcUGT expression patterns that were statistically associated with flavonoid profiles. Candidate prioritization based on phylogeny, developmental or cultivar specificity and transcript–metabolite associations highlighted AcUGT29, AcUGT02, and AcUGT51 as high-priority candidates for future functional investigation. This study provides a genomic and metabolic framework for investigating UGT-associated flavonoid diversification and for guiding subsequent functional and fruit-quality studies in pineapple.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171736

Authors: Victor Hugo Abarca Natasha Restuccia Anna Caccavo Alex J. Lindsey

Traffic stress is a major factor limiting the performance, safety and longevity of sports turf systems. The integration of nitrogen (N) fixing bacteria, such as Azospirillum brasilense (AZB), may accelerate post-traffic recovery. A two-year field study (2024–2025) was conducted in Citra, FL, to evaluate the effects of AZB-based commercial products formulations and N fertilization rates on the traffic tolerance and recovery of ‘TifTuf’ Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon × C. transvaalensis). Treatments were applied monthly and consisted of three N rates (48.8, 24.4, and 0 kg N ha−1) combined with four AZB treatments (Tazo-B® Liquid, Azopro® Turf, and AzoRoot®, and a non-treated control) arranged in a factorial randomized complete block design. Simulated athletic traffic was applied for five weeks, followed by a four-week recovery period. Turf quality, normalized difference vegetation index, percent green cover, soil moisture and surface hardness were evaluated. AZB products significantly influenced turf performance, particularly when combined with N fertilization. Azopro® Turf and Tazo-B® Liquid improved turf quality and green cover at fertilized N rates. AZB treatments also increased soil moisture, in some cases, reduced surface hardness. Overall, AZB inoculation enhanced Bermudagrass performance under traffic stress and supported acceptable turf quality and recovery at reduced N inputs, suggesting a potential role in reduced-N fertility programs for sports turf management.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171735

Authors: Tianfeng Liang Lei Zhang Wenjing Zhu Meng Wang Yongzhao Zheng Qian Li Bo Sun Yubo Qin Cuilan Li Jinjing Zhang Hang Liu

Combining basal organic manure amendment with mineral drip fertigation sustains soil productivity in water-limited agroecosystems, yet its complex impact on the accumulation risks of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) requires careful evaluation. However, the distribution, dissemination, and driving mechanisms of soil ARGs remain unclear. Based on high-throughput sequencing and high-throughput quantitative PCR (HT-qPCR) techniques, this study evaluated six fertilization regimes within a semi-arid maize field: no fertilization (CK), organic fertilizer alone (OM), mineral fertilizer alone (CF), integrated organic-mineral fertilization (CF+OM), drip fertigation with mineral fertilizer (FDI), and organic fertilization combined with mineral drip fertigation (FDI+OM). We targeted specific ARGs (tetracyclines, aminoglycosides, and multidrug resistance) due to their agricultural prevalence and high clinical risks. FDI+OM significantly enhanced bacterial abundance and diversity, whilst the fertilization regimes significantly altered bacterial community structure, with dissolved organic carbon (DOC) as the primary factor. Compared with CF and FDI, the application of organic fertilizer (OM, CF+OM, FDI+OM) significantly increased ARG diversity and abundance; in contrast to conventional fertilization (CF, OM, CF+OM), drip fertigation (FDI, FDI+OM) significantly reduced ARG abundance. Organic carbon pools indirectly affect ARG loads via altering bacterial abundance and further mediating the abundance of mobile genetic elements (MGEs). In summary, the combined application of organic fertilizer can increase soil carbon storage and microbial diversity, but may also increase the load of ARGs, whereas combining it with mineral drip irrigation fertilization helps reduce the accumulation of ARGs.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171734

Authors: Rita de Cássia do Nascimento Medeiros-Sá Paulo Cássio Alves Linhares Gabriel Sidharta dos Santos Rego Luan Cordeiro de Souza Barbosa Diogo Santos Cavalcante Viviane Silva Martins Ana Paula de Souza Ferreira Edivan da Silva Nunes Júnior Alex Álvares da Silva Agda Malany Forte de Oliveira Tayd Dayvison Custódio Peixoto Kleane Targino de Oliveira Pereira Miguel Ferreira Neto Salvador Barros Torres Francisco Vanies da Silva Sá

Salt stress significantly limits the growth of Annonaceae species in tropical regions. This research aimed to test foliar Mg applications to alleviate the effects of salt stress on the growth and physiology of Annonaceae species. Two simultaneous experiments were conducted in a randomized block design in a 2 × 3 factorial scheme (n = 4). The factors were: two levels of control water salinity (0.5 and 2.5 dS m−1), three doses of foliar Mg (0, 1, and 2 mL L−1), and four replicates. A salinity of 2.5 dS m−1 reduced growth in both species. However, Mg supplementation effectively mitigated these deleterious effects. In Soursop (Annona muricata L.), 1 mL L−1 of Mg increased salt tolerance, enhancing carboxylation efficiency and total dry mass by approximately 33% and 44%, respectively, compared with 0 Mg under saline conditions. For custard apple (Annona squamosa L.), a dose of 2 mL L−1 yielded the best results, maintaining higher water use efficiency (17.67%), intrinsic water use efficiency (18.51%), and total chlorophyll content (32.27%) compared with plants receiving 0 Mg under saline conditions. Foliar supplementation with Mg is a viable strategy to alleviate saline stress in Annonaceae, with A. muricata requiring 1 mL L−1 and A. squamosa 2 mL L−1 to optimize physiological performance and biomass production at 2.5 dS m−1.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171733

Authors: Li Sim Ho Geok Yuan Annie Tan Julia Ibrahim Chee-Keng Teh

Tropical perennial systems in Southeast Asia, including oil palm, rubber, and cocoa, are established on highly weathered soils under monsoonal climates that differ fundamentally from temperate systems for which most soil health frameworks were developed. Growing certification, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting, and regenerative agriculture requirements demand demonstrable soil health outcomes, yet the diagnostic infrastructure needed to generate and verify such outcomes remains limited. Existing approaches rely on episodic, indicator-based assessment that captures static conditions rather than functional state, applying benchmarks from dissimilar agroecological contexts with limited basis for resolving system readiness, biological constraint, or functional trajectory. This creates a persistent diagnostic gap between measurement and decision-making, disproportionately affecting smallholders required to meet compliance frameworks calibrated for fundamentally different systems. This critical review synthesizes literature on conventional soil testing, indicator-based frameworks, monitoring programs, and biological diagnostics to identify the structural origins of this gap. Soil health surveillance is identified as a review-derived diagnostic logic, i.e., longitudinal, function-oriented, and crop-calibrated, integrative across chemical, physical, and biological dimensions, and tiered from field-level screening to longitudinal datasets supporting monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) reporting. Empirical calibration, context-specific threshold development, and longitudinal validation at the individual system scale are identified as research priorities for operationalizing governance-ready soil health assessment in tropical perennial agriculture.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171732

Authors: Zhiqiang Zheng Hong Wang Zhengzhong Jin Maoling Ayitikan Jing Xie Zhenggang Wang

To explore the suitable surface mulching measures for vegetation restoration in abandoned mining areas in arid regions, this study investigated the water conservation effects of various surface mulching practices on H. ammodendron restoration in arid mining zones. The results showed that (1) The survival rates of sandalwood under different coverage measures are ranked as follows: coal gangue mulching > control > fine sand mulching > liquid film mulching > agricultural plastic film mulching. (2) Different mulching measures had a significant effect on the height growth of H. ammodendron (p = 0.001) (p < 0.05). The agricultural plastic film group yielded the greatest annual increments in plant height and crown width (36.50 cm and 33.49 cm, respectively), with agricultural plastic film and fine sand exhibiting superior water retention capacity. (3) Overall, each mulching practice had distinct advantages and drawbacks. Agricultural plastic film mulching achieved the best plant growth-promoting effect yet suffered from soil contamination and high costs. Coal gangue mulching, capable of solid waste recycling while delivering favorable restoration outcomes, was the preferred option for vegetation restoration in local mining areas. These findings provide technical references and practical support for vegetation restoration in abandoned mining areas of arid regions.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171731

Authors: Linzhi Zhu Donglin Zong Dongmei Li Liyuan Cun Yilin Liu Min Xue Xiaoyan Tang Yuanxue Chen Kaiwei Xu

Rhizobial inoculation has the potential to improve soybean N nutrition and productivity in cereal–soybean intercropping systems, yet the performance of different strains across contrasting field environments remains insufficiently understood. In this study, six soybean rhizobial isolates were initially screened under greenhouse sand-culture conditions, and two promising strains, Bradyrhizobium japonicum S36 and Sinorhizobium fredii S65, were subsequently evaluated in maize–soybean and sorghum-soybean field environments. Relative to the uninoculated control, both strains were associated with higher plant N status, greater chemical soil fertility, increased dry-matter accumulation, and higher grain yield. B. japonicum S36 and S. fredii S65 increased grain yield by 23.8% and 18.6%, respectively, in the maize–soybean system and by 49.2% and 40.4%, respectively, in the sorghum-soybean system. S. fredii S65 was more strongly associated with increases in two-seeded pod number and total seed number, whereas B. japonicum S36 showed broader advantages in chemical soil fertility, biomass accumulation, 100-seed weight, grain yield, and grain Ca, Fe, and Mo concentrations. Multivariate analyses further revealed coordinated associations among rhizobial inoculation, chemical soil fertility, plant N status, biomass accumulation, pod formation, and grain yield. Overall, both strains showed promising agronomic potential, with B. japonicum S36 exhibiting a more comprehensive response profile. These findings provide field-based evidence for the development of resource-efficient cereal–soybean intercropping systems and have potential relevance to sustainable food production, improved agricultural resource-use efficiency, and climate-resilient agriculture, corresponding to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of Zero Hunger, Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate Action, and Life on Land.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171730

Authors: Milixiati Minaduola Youyang Luo Xiangwen Xie Wanli Xu Feng Ding Renna Sa

Soil salinization constrains cotton production in arid regions, making the optimization of water and salt regulation in drip irrigation systems crucial for enhancing water use efficiency and yield in saline cotton fields. This study aimed to evaluate the synergistic effects of emitter parameters and irrigation quotas on water–salt regulation and cotton growth in a salinized field. Treatments included conventional and leaching irrigation quotas, combined with emitter flow rates of 1.4–3.0 L/h and emitter spacings of 20–30 cm. Soil water–salt dynamics, cotton growth, and yield responses were monitored. The results indicated that the irrigation quota was the dominant factor regulating root-zone water retention and salt leaching, with leaching quotas significantly enhancing soil moisture and desalination compared to conventional quotas. Emitter parameters significantly modulated water and salt distribution. A moderate flow rate of 2.4 L/h combined with a 30 cm spacing created more uniform soil moisture distribution and more efficient salt leaching within the root zone. Cotton growth and yield responded markedly to this water–salt regulation pattern. The combination of a 2.4 L/h flow rate, 30 cm spacing, and the leaching quota achieved the highest seed cotton yield of 6343.12 kg/hm2. However, increasing the total seasonal irrigation quota reduced irrigation water productivity from 1.26 kg/m3 to 0.97 kg/m3. Based on the experimental data, optimization models for yield and salt leaching index were constructed and used for prediction. The model-predicted parameter combination for theoretical reference was an emitter discharge rate of 2.1–2.4 L/h, a spacing of 30 cm, and a per-application irrigation quota of 60–66 mm, with a predicted yield of 6356.68 kg/hm2 and a salt leaching index of 6.48. This study provides a quantitative basis for optimizing drip irrigation system parameters and the management of water and salt in saline cotton fields in the arid region of Xinjiang.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171729

Authors: Radoslava Kanianska Miriam Kizeková

Grasslands are very diverse and their global distribution is determined by the climate, mainly the temperature and precipitation [...]

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171728

Authors: Weijie Wu Jianmin Gao Luxi Wang

Urea discharge can become unstable as interparticle cohesion increases under moisture-affected conditions. This study combined bulk-solid mechanics, discrete element method (DEM) simulations, contact parameter calibration, and bench testing to investigate urea arching and vibration-assisted discharge. Dry-contact parameters for urea particles and a polypropylene (PP) hopper were calibrated using angle-of-repose and sliding tests. The calibrated simulations differed from the physical target values by 1.71% for the angle of repose and 3.98% for the sliding friction angle. In a separate DEM sensitivity analysis, JKR surface energy was prescribed at 0, 0.05, 0.15, and 0.30 J·m−2 as an effective adhesion parameter rather than as a calibrated moisture state. The maximum EDEM-exported Total Force signal increased from 2.283 N at 0 J·m−2 to 2.704 N at 0.30 J·m−2 (18.5%), whereas the mean particle velocity during the common 5–18 s pre-discharge interval decreased from 0.0613 to 0.0397 m·s−1 (35.3%). Two combined excitation settings were evaluated: 29.17 Hz/0.2 mm and 58.33 Hz/1.2 mm. Because frequency and amplitude changed simultaneously, their individual effects could not be isolated. The bench tests yielded mean discharged masses of 566.808, 492.435, and 464.305 g for the 58.33 Hz/1.2 mm, 29.17 Hz/0.2 mm, and non-vibrating conditions, respectively. The 58.33 Hz/1.2 mm setting increased the mean mass discharged during the 30 s collection interval by approximately 22.1% relative to the non-vibrating control. The corresponding between-run coefficients of variation were 3.628%, 3.580%, and 4.303%; these values describe repeatability between replicate runs rather than temporal or spatial discharge uniformity. Overall, increasing prescribed adhesion reduced particle mobility in the DEM simulations, whereas the 58.33 Hz/1.2 mm combined excitation increased discharged mass under the tested conditions. The experiments do not directly demonstrate crystal bridge rupture or isolate an independent frequency effect.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171727

Authors: Neonila V. Kononenko Elena M. Lazareva Larisa I. Fedoreyeva

Various stress factors lead to increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation and increased damage to various plant tissues. Data obtained using fluorescence microscopy show that under abiotic stress, the most intense ROS staining is observed in the epidermal and cortical cells of the root cap and division zones. Increased ROS formation under abiotic stress activates the antioxidant system in wheat. The expression level of the MnSOD and Cu/ZnSOD genes in the Orenburgskaya 22 wheat variety (Triticum aestivum) is more than twice that in the Zolotaya variety (Triticum durum). An amount of 150 mM NaCl activates MnSOD and Cu/ZnSOD gene expression in the Orenburgskaya 22 wheat variety, increases glutathione (GSH) content, and activates GSH-associated enzymes. Therefore, different wheat genotypes have different mechanisms for neutralizing ROS. The antioxidant quercetin reduces ROS formation and also promotes antioxidant system activation in the Orenburgskaya 22 variety and has virtually no effect on the Zolotaya variety. However, it does reduce ROS before and after NaCl treatment in both wheat genotypes. Salt stress causes an increase in the number of small and large autophagosomes in root cells of Triticum durum wheat, while, in Triticum aestivum, large vacuoles not marked by ATG8 and small autophagosomes near the nucleus form in root cortex cells. Treatment of control plants with quercetin does not increase the number of autophagosomes. Treatment with quercetin after salt stress does not increase the number of ATG8-marked autophagosomes in cells of either genotype. Treatment with quercetin before salt exposure leads to an increase in the number of autophagosomes in durum wheat cells. PCR analysis of autophagy genes revealed features of the initiation of autophagosome formation. Thus, quercetin exerts a protective effect against salt stress. However, its use is limited to plants with high flavonoid content. Quercetin may have promising applications in agriculture.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171726

Authors: Yazhou Wei Hanping Mao Haitao Peng Ikram Ullah

UAV-assisted greenhouse tomato pollination requires lateral airflow delivery toward flower clusters distributed along the crop canopy. To address this, an asymmetric duct was designed to passively redirect the rotor wake through geometric modification of three inner-wall curvature parameters (R1, R2, R3). Three-dimensional CFD simulations were conducted to evaluate the effects of these parameters on airflow redirection and aerodynamic performance. Compared with a conventional symmetric duct, the asymmetric duct shifted the high-velocity wake from a predominantly vertical direction toward the canopy side. Among the three parameters, R3 exerted the greatest influence: increasing R3 from 20 to 65 mm improved the lift-to-drag ratio from 24.7 to 184.2 but reduced the airflow velocity delivered to the pollination region from 6.48 to 2.82 m·s−1. The selected configuration (R1 = 11 mm, R2 = 20 mm, R3 = 25 mm) delivered an airflow velocity of 6.03 m·s−1 at an operating height of 1.44 m, with a lift of 7.04 N and a lift-to-drag ratio of 37.0. These results demonstrate that passive geometric asymmetry can redirect rotor-induced airflow toward the canopy side while balancing airflow delivery, operating height, and aerodynamic performance under greenhouse spatial constraints.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171725

Authors: Bishu Gao Liang Gong Yefeng Sun Gengjie Lin Jiayu Chen Yifan Xu Yanming Li Chengliang Liu

Agricultural multi-robot systems in narrow and dynamic environments require global coordination, semantic event interpretation, and responsive trajectory execution. This study presents an end–edge–cloud fast–slow semantic planning framework. The cloud maintains a farm topology and generates fleet-level dispatch policies; the edge hosts an asynchronous agentic vision–language planner and a fast trajectory planner; and the robot performs sensing, LiDAR odometry, low-level control, and execution. The fast planner reuses the latest valid semantic condition until an event-triggered update becomes available. The fast branch is pretrained on nuScenes and adapted using the training and validation subsets of a 3780-sample agricultural dataset comprising synchronized front- and rear-view images, robot states, motion histories, and future trajectories, with an independent 630-sample test set reserved for final evaluation. On an edge-side RTX 4080 SUPER, the complete planner achieves an average L2 error of 0.67 m, a fast-step latency of 96.3 ms, and a throughput of 10.4 Hz. In the four-robot topology experiment, the framework achieves a 100.0% success rate under the representative single-blockage condition and maintains an 86.7% success rate under the dual-blockage condition. During an approximately 30 min operation at a nominal semantic update rate of 2 Hz, the cloud and robot communication round-trip times average 24.43 and 3.85 ms, respectively, with no robot deadline misses, while the mean trigger-to-updated-trajectory latency of the full event-driven pipeline is 2357.37 ms. These results demonstrate the feasibility of assigning global coordination to the cloud, semantic reasoning and trajectory inference to the edge, and sensing and execution to the robot.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171724

Authors: Hyun Hwa Park Pyae Pyae Win Yong In Kuk

Climate change-driven increases in temperature and changes in precipitation regimes are altering the timing and patterns of weed emergence in agricultural systems. Consequently, accurately predicting weed emergence and selecting the best timing for control are becoming more crucial over time. Weeds such as Echinochloa crus-galli (barnyardgrass) are particularly problematic due to their widespread adaptability and competition across varying cultivation environments, making an accurate prediction of the timing of emergence crucial for management. The objective of this study was to characterize the emergence pattern of E. crus-galli under diverse environmental conditions and to develop and evaluate a Gompertz-based thermal-time model for predicting seedling emergence. Increased temperatures enhanced emergence rates and speeds in both growth chamber and greenhouse conditions. The effective accumulated temperature required for 50% emergence was relatively consistent (54–69 °C·d). Furthermore, high emergence percentages were maintained at soil moisture levels of 80% or greater. Across years, emergence responses differed substantially under field conditions. Independent validation using a field dataset collected in 2026 demonstrated that the model developed from the 2025 dataset successfully reproduced observed emergence patterns under field conditions (RMSE = 2.7%p, MAE = 2.3%p). Regional emergence analyses suggested a tendency toward earlier emergence under recent temperature conditions, particularly in warmer regions, although these predictions were based on only two years of field observations. Overall, the present study provides a preliminary evaluation of the applicability of a thermal-time-based approach for describing E. crus-galli emergence under Korean environmental conditions. Additional validation across multiple locations and growing seasons would further strengthen the general applicability of the model.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171723

Authors: Eric Wang Ana Almeida Yvette Everingham

This narrative and conceptual review examines how irrigation management in Australian sugarcane can progress from practice-based efficiency improvement towards an integrated evidence system supporting productivity, water-quality improvement and nature-positive reporting. It reviews regional irrigation conditions, standard and best management practices, crop and water modelling, grower-facing scheduling, Internet of Things (IoT) monitoring and automation, remote sensing, forecast-informed irrigation and artificial intelligence. It then considers natural-capital, nature-positive and environmental-reporting frameworks relevant to reef-connected sugarcane landscapes. The review identifies a persistent gap between information generated by irrigation technologies and the credible, transparent and auditable indicators required for broader environmental reporting. A five-part integration pathway connects established components from farm monitoring and modelling, environmental-pressure estimation, supporting evidence, documented methods and defined reporting applications. Existing studies support individual components and several adjacent linkages; this review maps how they could operate as a whole system. Farm-scale technology outputs are treated as evidence of management actions or modelled pressure pathways rather than direct measurements of ecosystem condition. Smart irrigation is thereby positioned as an enabling component linking farm profitability, reduced pressure on soil and water assets, and more credible nature-positive water management in Australian sugarcane.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171722

Authors: Jiujie Liu Qin Yi Yuchen Song Xiumei Min Taoyun Chen Yuxin Ren Haoyu Qian Yunlong Liu Yanfeng Ding Yu Jiang

Paddy fields are a major agricultural hotspot for nitrous oxide (N2O), contributing approximately 11% of global agricultural emissions. While elevated CO2 and warming individually regulate N2O emissions by modulating soil carbon, nitrogen (N) availability and microbial activity, the effects of concurrent elevated CO2 and temperature (ECT) and the underlying microbial mechanisms under field conditions remain poorly understood. Here, we used a free-air CO2 enrichment and temperature increase (T-FACE) system in a rice–wheat cropping system to investigate the impacts of ECT on N2O emissions from rice paddies and identify the underlying biogeochemical and microbial mechanisms. Results showed that ECT increased area-scaled and yield-scaled N2O emissions by 15.3% and 17.6%, respectively. Mechanistically, during the peak emission period, ECT significantly increased soil NH4+–N content by 40.2% and the denitrification gene ratio [(nirK + nirS)/nosZ] by 27.5%. Furthermore, ECT increased the diversity of nitrifying communities but decreased that of denitrifying communities, while reshaping the composition of ammonia-oxidizing archaea and denitrifiers, thereby altering nitrification and denitrification. Overall, our field-based evidence suggests that ECT can stimulate N2O emissions primarily by increasing soil N substrate availability and shifting denitrifier communities in ways that may favor N2O accumulation. These findings offer mechanistic insights into climate-driven N2O emissions.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171721

Authors: Jing Liu Zongqing Wei Yu Ma Rui Ma Jingyu Qi Zhizhuang An Lianfeng Du

In vegetable production, excessive nitrogen fertilizer application leads to extremely low NUE and substantial reactive nitrogen losses. Given the abundant rainfall and the high residual soil nitrogen in soil after harvest, there is a pronounced risk of nitrate leaching during the summer fallow period. This study conducted a meta-analysis to systematically evaluate the effects of catch crops on nitrogen loss and soil nitrogen accumulation during the summer fallow season. The results showed that catch crops significantly reduced total N leaching loss by 58.10% through decreasing leachate volume by 24.54% and reducing leachate concentrations of TDN (43.36%), NO3−–N (34.47%), and NH4+–N (56.05%), respectively. Catch crops reduced soil NO3−–N storage by 36.28% and SIN storage by 40.61%, while increasing SON storage by 69.79% and MBN by 21.47%, thereby achieving a transformation from readily available mineral N to more stable organic N. Catch crops also enhanced ammonification, mineralization, and nitrification by 126%, 142%, and 42%, respectively, and altered the microbial community structure. The effectiveness of catch crops varied significantly among taxa: Poaceae exhibited the best overall performance, the genus Zea (especially sweet corn) showed the most comprehensive performance in integrated N control, while Fabaceae increased soil NH4+-N. Environmental factors, including soil depth, pH, organic matter, total nitrogen, initial NO3−–N, rainfall, and soil texture, collectively regulated the effectiveness of catch crops. In summary, a rational selection of catch crop species tailored to site-specific soil and environmental conditions can effectively reduce nitrogen leaching during the summer fallow period and support precision nitrogen management.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171720

Authors: Xiaozheng Ju Caiyun Cao Yudong Zheng Chunlian Zheng Hongkai Dang Zaffar Malik Anqi Zhang Junpeng Zhang

Saline water irrigation is a potential strategy to address agricultural water scarcity, but its effects on soil respiration and carbon balance are not well understood. To clarify these effects and promote the safe utilization of saline water resources, this study investigated five irrigation water salinity levels ECiw: 1.3, 3.4, 7.1, 10.6, and 14.1 dS·m−1 (i.e., 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 PSU; 1000, 2000, 4000, 6000, 8000 mg·L−1) in a winter wheat–summer maize rotation during 2024–2025. The results indicated that saline water irrigation caused salt accumulation during the wheat season, whereas salt leaching occurred during the maize season. When ECiw ≤ 3.4 dS·m−1, no notable decreases were observed in dry matter accumulation, water productivity, and carbon emission efficiency for both crops. In contrast, when ECiw > 3.4 dS·m−1, the crop yields and net carbon input of the crop rotation system were suppressed to a considerable extent. Furthermore, under saline water irrigation, the average soil respiration rate decreased by 4.1–25.2% during the wheat growing season, while that for maize decreased by 7.4–30.7%. Soil respiration in wheat was negatively correlated with soil salinity and pH, and positively correlated with soil moisture (p < 0.01). In maize, soil respiration was negatively correlated with salinity (p < 0.01), and positively correlated with soil moisture (p < 0.05) and temperature (p < 0.01). The entropy-weighted TOPSIS model identified 3.4 dS·m−1 as the appropriate irrigation salinity threshold for maintaining yield and carbon sink function in this rotation system.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171719

Authors: Ingrid Zwertvaegher Tewodros Andargie Zewdie Jan Vanwijnsberghe Sarah Bossuyt Benny De Cauwer Pieter Verboven David Nuyttens

In dense or structurally complex canopies, spray applications often fail to adequately reach the specific plant sites where pest organisms reside, typically the lower canopy and abaxial leaf surfaces. An additional challenge is balancing drift mitigation while providing adequate spray coverage and deposition. This study investigates spray deposition and coverage in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) and Brussels sprouts (Brassica oleracea var. gemmifera DC.) crops using drift-reducing spray configurations. Across two growing seasons (2023 and 2024), seven spray configurations (varying per crop) were evaluated during field trials at three growth stages (early, mid and late). The configurations combined different application techniques (standard boom, air support, air-injection system, Wingssprayer, reduced boom height, droplegs) with nozzle types (flat-fan nozzles with 0%, 75%, and 90% drift reduction, and an angled nozzle). Deposition and coverage were quantified using artificial collectors (filter paper collectors and water sensitive papers) and multiple mineral chelate tracer analysis using spectrometry. This method provides a comparative assessment under standardized measurement conditions rather than absolute deposition on leaf surfaces. Significant interactions between spray configuration and collector position were observed in both crops (p < 0.001), except for relative deposition in potato at the mid and late growth stage, indicating that spray performance depended highly on canopy location. However, no consistent trends across configurations were identified. No single configuration outperformed or, more importantly, underperformed the others across all collector positions. This suggests that drift-reducing configurations could potentially be adopted without substantially compromising spray deposition and coverage, at least as indicated by measurements obtained with artificial collectors.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171718

Authors: Youheng Tan Xinxin Chen Jianping Hu Wei Liu Jinhao Zhou Haoran Wu

The automated transplanting of bare-root strawberry seedlings faces challenges, including a high reliance on manual feeding and a lack of adaptable equipment. Moreover, existing picking mechanisms are typically limited to plug seedlings rather than multi-stem crops. To overcome these limitations, this study proposes an automatic seedling picking and feeding system synergizing an intermittent conveying device and a manipulator. First, the physical and mechanical properties of bare-root strawberry seedlings were measured. Through radial stem compression tests, a non-destructive clamping safety threshold bounded by a bio-yield point of 28 N was determined. Secondly, an intermittent conveying device based on variable-span V-shaped supports was designed. Furthermore, based on the clamping safety threshold and spatial kinematic modeling, a seedling picking end-effector was developed. This end-effector adopts a “gather first, clamp later” operation strategy to guarantee grasping accuracy and ensure reliability by preventing seedling detachment during transportation. Finally, a system test bench was built to conduct a three-factor, three-level orthogonal experiment to investigate the effects of seedling picking frequency, gripping position, and clamping gap on operation quality. At a seedling pick-up frequency of 20 plants/min, gripping position of 25 mm, and gripping gap of 5 mm, the system reached 98% success rate in picking and feeding, validating its stability and providing core equipment and theoretical support for fully automatic strawberry transplanters.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171717

Authors: Yuanze Li Xueying Huo Yunpeng Zhang Junying Ge Jingwen Pang Zhiyi Zhao Ganggang Zhang Fei Yu

Belowground multitrophic communities and their potential associations are important biological foundations for the maintenance and recovery of soil ecosystem functions. However, it remains unclear how soil micro-food web composition and network complexity are linked to soil ecosystem multifunctionality across different post-cropland restoration states. In this study, we used a space-for-time substitution approach and selected cropland and three post-cropland restoration states in the Taihang Mountains, including shrub–grassland, Populus spp. plantation, and Robinia pseudoacacia plantation, each with five plots, to examine changes in bacterial, fungal, and nematode communities, soil micro-food web network complexity, and soil ecosystem multifunctionality in topsoil and subsoil. Compared with cropland, bacterial diversity was higher in the shrub–grassland, Populus spp. and R. pseudoacacia plantations, whereas fungal diversity showed a marked decline in the Populus spp. plantation. Furthermore, the topsoil of the R. pseudoacacia plantation exhibited much higher micro-food web network complexity and soil multifunctionality than cropland, whereas differences among land-use types were relatively small in the subsoil. Structural equation modeling indicated that vegetation type, soil depth, soil moisture content, microbial diversity, nematode diversity, and soil micro-food web network complexity jointly explained 94% of the variation in soil ecosystem multifunctionality (R2 = 0.94). Further random forest analysis identified soil depth as the most important predictor of soil ecosystem multifunctionality, followed by soil micro-food web network complexity; among biological variables, fungal diversity, bacterial diversity, omnivorous-predatory nematode diversity, and herbivorous nematode diversity also showed relatively high importance. Overall, these results suggest that changes in soil ecosystem multifunctionality across post-cropland restoration states were strongly soil-depth-dependent, and that soil micro-food web diversity and network complexity can serve as important biological indicators for assessing restoration outcomes.

Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy16171716

Authors: Yuqi Zhang Xuehai Wang Yanan Liu Lili Fu Yanlei Xu

Accurate weed stem localization is essential for site-specific weed control, including precision spraying, laser weeding, and other targeted weed-control operations. To address species diversity, morphology, and costly multiclass annotation in maize seedling fields, this study proposes a two-stage method based on crop-region exclusion. First, MSDNet, a lightweight YOLOv8n-based maize detector integrating ShuffleNetV2, enhanced feature fusion, coordinate attention, and Wise-IoU loss, detects maize seedlings; pixels within the detected boxes are set to zero. Second, hue–saturation–value thresholding, morphological processing, and area filtering extract vegetation and suppress soil noise. Principal component analysis determines each weed contour’s principal axis, and the image-moment centroid is projected onto this axis to estimate the stem center. MSDNet achieved a mean average precision of 93.4% at an intersection-over-union threshold of 0.5, 8.7 percentage points above the baseline, while reducing parameters by 28.66%. Vegetation segmentation achieved a mean pixel accuracy of 97.6% and a mean intersection over union of 93.8%. Within a 15-pixel tolerance (9.50 mm), stem detection rate and localization precision reached 90.1% and 92.5%, respectively, with a mean localization error of 10.65 pixels (6.74 mm). The proposed method provides visual perception and target-localization support for site-specific weed control while reducing reliance on fine-grained multiclass annotation and species-specific models.