In order to investigate the influence mechanism of pH level on the growth and development of rice and nutrient uptake under different nitrogen forms, rice cultivar Guanghui 751 was grown with five pH treatments (pH 3.5, 4.5, 5.5, 6.5, and 7.5) to study the effects on the biomass accumulation, root morphology, and nutrient uptake of rice under ammonium-nitrogen and nitrate-nitrogen conditions hydroponically. The results showed that under ammonium-nitrogen conditions, the highest rice biomass accumulation was found at pH 6.5 treatment; compared with the pH 3.5 treatment, the shoot and whole-plant biomass accumulation increased by 146.6% and 142.5%, respectively. Plant height and maximum root length increased significantly; total root length, root surface area, and root volume increased by 612.6%, 317.8%, and 147.1%, respectively. The uptake of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), and manganese (Mn) increased by 159.5%, 114.3%, 181.9%, 241.4%, 124.4%, 74.9%, 173.4%, 366.2%, and 3058.0%, respectively. Under nitrate-nitrogen conditions, the highest rice biomass accumulation was found at pH=4.5 treatment; compared with the pH=3.5 treatment, the shoot, root, and whole-plant biomass accumulation increased by 36.7%, 49.6%, and 38.6%, respectively. Plant height and maximum root length increased significantly; total root length, root surface area, and root volume increased by 129.9%, 83.0%, and 47.5%, respectively. The uptake of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Cu, Zn, Fe, and Mn increased by 40.0%, 27.7%, 51.0%, 78.5%, 71.2%, 53.9%, 292.1%, 1449.5%, and 695.1%, respectively. In conclusion, the optimum pH values for rice under ammonium-nitrogen and nitrate-nitrogen conditions were 6.5 and 4.5, respectively. Under their respective optimum pH conditions, ammonium-nitrogen and nitrate-nitrogen primarily increased rice biomass accumulation by promoting root growth and development and increasing nutrient uptake.

Progesterone is a steroid hormone found in plants, which is closely related to plant growth and development and plays a positive role in stress resistance. The growth status of wheat roots directly affects yield and stress resistance. This study investigated the effects of exogenous progesterone on the elongation growth of wheat roots and preliminarily analyzed their regulatory pathways. The results showed that different concentrations of exogenous progesterone exerted varying regulatory effects on wheat root growth: low concentrations (0.001 and 0.01 μmol/L) promoted root elongation, whereas high concentrations (0.1 and 1.0 μmol/L) inhibited growth. Exogenous progesterone treatment significantly affected the glucose content and phosphofructokinase (PFK) activity in the roots of wheat seedlings. With increasing progesterone concentration, the root glucose content first decreased and then increased, while the trend of PFK activity was opposite. Further research found that under 10 μmol/L glucose treatment, the root glucose content decreased and PFK activity increased; under 10 000 μmol/L glucose treatment, the root glucose content increased and PFK activity was inhibited. In addition, the application of 0.1 μmol/L progesterone significantly promoted root glucose accumulation under low-concentration glucose treatment and inhibited the induction effect of glucose on PFK activity. Conversely, the application of 0.001 μmol/L progesterone significantly inhibited root glucose accumulation under high-concentration glucose treatment and alleviated the inhibitory effect of glucose on PFK activity. These findings suggest that exogenous progesterone may affect the glycolysis process by acting on PFK, a key rate-limiting enzyme in the glycolytic pathway, thereby regulating the glucose content in roots and regulating wheat root elongation growth.

To address the issues of unreasonable chemical fertilizer management, low fertilizer use efficiency, and escalating environmental risks in the maize production areas of Inner Mongolia, field plot experiments were conducted in two typical production areas, namely the black soil region of Northeast China and the Tumochuan Plain. Six treatments were established: no nitrogen control (CK), 100% chemical fertilizer (M0), and organic fertilizer replacing 25% (M25), 50% (M50), 75% (M75), and 100% (M100) of chemical nitrogen, to clarify the effects of different substitution ratios on maize yield, dry matter accumulation, fertilizer use efficiency, and nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) nutrient uptake. The results showed that the M25 treatment significantly increased maize yield, with an increase of 4.69%-36.80% compared with other treatments. The M0 treatment exhibited the highest dry matter accumulation of various organs during the early growth stages of maize; however, the M25 treatment showed a distinct advantage from the large bell-mouth stage to maturity. The M25 treatment promoted the uptake of N, P, and K nutrients and enhanced their utilization efficiency; the partial productivity of fertilizer in M25 was 2.77%-50.51% higher than those of other treatments. In conclusion, the response of maize to organic fertilizer substitution in the Tumochuan Plain was superior to that in the Black Soil Region of Northeast China, and replacing 25% of chemical nitrogen with organic fertilizer can achieve a synergistic improvement in maize yield and fertilizer use efficiency.

To investigate the species and pathogenicity of wheat root rot pathogens, diseased plants with symptoms of wheat root rot were collected from 16 sampling sites in six prefecture-level cities in Heilongjiang Province during 2022-2023. A total of 432 fungal isolates were obtained using the tissue isolation method. By combining morphological identification and molecular identification based on 5.8S rDNA-ITS or β-tubulin gene sequence analyses, the pathogens were identified as four species: Bipolaris sorokiniana, Fusarium avenaceum, Fusarium equiseti, and Fusarium proliferatum. The number of isolates for each species was 334, 24, 12, and 3, respectively, with B. sorokiniana being the most frequent, accounting for 77.31% of the total. Verification of Koch’s postulates demonstrated significant differences in pathogenicity among the four species, with both the disease index and disease incidence of B. sorokiniana being higher than those of the three Fusarium species. In summary, B. sorokiniana is the dominant pathogen of wheat root rot in Heilongjiang Province, with the three Fusarium species acting as secondary pathogens.

To understand the effects of different fertilization rates and planting densities on yield and economic benefit of Zhuangtang 6, and to determine the optimal fertilization level and planting density, field experiments were carried out in Longʼan cane area of Nanning and Jiangzhou cane area of Chongzuo. A two-factor split-block design was conducted, with the main treatment (A) of fertilization. Three levels of 42% compound fertilizer 3750 (high fertilizer, A1), 2250 (medium fertilizer, A2) and 1125 kg/ha (low fertilizer, A3) were set. For secondary treatment (B), five planting densities were set: low density B1 (60 000 buds/ha), medium- low density B2 (75 000 buds/ha), medium density B3 (90 000 buds/ha), medium-high density B4 (105 000 buds/ha), and high density B5 (120 000 buds/ha). The results showed that the yield of Zhuangtang 6 sugarcane increased with the increasing planting density; however, there was no significant difference between yield and fertilization level. The correlation analysis showed that the yield and tillering rate were negatively correlated in the two cane areas (significantly in Longʼan and extremely significantly in Jiangzhou), and yield was significantly positively correlated with the number of productive stalks. The economic benefit of A3B5 treatment was the highest. The yield of A3B5 treatment in Longʼan area of Nanning was 91.44 t/ha, with an economic benefit of 35 419.5 yuan/ha, which was 6.75% higher than that of A2B4 treatment with the highest yield of 92.32 t/ha. The yield of A3B5 treatment in Jiangzhou area of Chongzuo was 74.88 t/ha, with an economic benefit of 27 190.2 yuan/ha, which was 27.15% higher than that of A1B4 treatment with the highest yield of 77.40 t/ha. Considering the different water and fertilizer conditions and management levels of the two sugarcane areas, the suitable fertilizer application rate for high-yield and high efficiency planting of Zhuangtang 6 is 1125-2250 kg/ha, and the reasonable planting density is 10 500-12 000 buds/ha.

To identify superior adzuki bean varieties suitable for planting in different regions, a multi- environment evaluation of 27 new adzuki bean varieties (lines) was conducted at 18 test sites nationwide from 2022 to 2023, to systematically analyzed the variations in main agronomic traits and yields of these varieties (lines) across different ecological zones. The results showed that there were significant differences in the agronomic traits and yields of the new adzuki bean varieties (lines) across different test sites and ecological zones. Traits such as the number of main stem branches, plant height, and number of pods per plant had strong environmental interaction effects (coefficient of variation >30%), while traits like growth period, pod length, and 100-grain weight showed higher genetic stability (coefficient of variation <15%). Nine varieties, including Baohong 201429-8, Chihong 3 and Tanghong 201301-2, showed yield increases of 0.29%-8.79% compared with the control. Baohong 201429-8 and Tanghong 201509-12 exhibited both high yield and broad adaptability.

Using ʻHongnuo 16ʼ sorghum as the experimental material and under equivalent nutrient input conditions, six treatments were established: no fertilization (CK), conventional fertilization (HF), and nitrogen organic fertilizer substitution ratios for nitrogen of 25% (NF25), 50% (NF50), 75% (NF75), and 100% (NF100). The results showed that compared with CK treatment, increasing the ratio of organic fertilizer substitution led to varying degrees of improvement in soil organic matter, total nitrogen, alkaline hydrolyzed nitrogen, available phosphorus, and available potassium contents. The activities of alkaline phosphatase, urease, and sucrase in soils treated with organic manure substitutions were significantly increased by an average of 40.8%, 13.6%, and 61.6%, respectively. Sorghum yield could be well fitted with a quadratic equation, with the highest yield obtained when applying cow manure at a nitrogen rate of 92.5 kg/ha theoretically. In this experiment, the treatment NF50 not only improved soil physicochemical properties and enhanced soil enzyme activity but also maintained sorghum at high productivity. Considering the responses in terms of sorghum yield and soil fertility as well as soil enzyme activity under different levels of organic manure substitution, it was suggested that an organic nitrogen substitution ratio of 50% was suitable for optimal application rates.

The influence of potato transcription factors on anthocyanin accumulation is primarily reflected in their regulation of genes involved in the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway. In this study, the StMYB3 gene was cloned by RT-PCR from three potato cultivars: Shepody (white flesh), Wanziqianhong (light purple flesh), and 2013-89-61 (dark purple flesh). Bioinformatics characterization and differential expression analysis were performed. The results showed that the target fragment of StMYB3 genes was 710 bp in length, encoding a protein with a molecular weight of 20.71 kDa and an isoelectric point of 9.14, which was identified as a hydrophilic protein. StMYB3 genes contains R2R3-MYB domain and bHLH interaction motif but lacks a transmembrane domain. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that StMYB3 genes shares the highest sequence similarity with the ScMYB gene from pepper. Semi-quantitative PCR results showed that the expression level of potato StMYB3 gene in different tissues is: tender leaf > old leaf > stem > tuber > root, and the cultivar 2013-89-61 exhibited consistently high expression across all tissues.

In order to explore the appropriate keeping way of tea plants before closing the garden, using “Baojinghuangjincha 1” as the test material, two autumn management treatments were set up, topping before garden closing (T) and no topping (CK). Samples were collected at germination stage, bud head stage as well as one bud and one leaf stage in spring, and the hormone content was determined. The amino acid components and related gene expression levels at one bud and one leaf stage were determined, and the correlation between hormone content and main amino acid components was analyzed. The results showed that budding density, 100-bud weight, and yield of tea plants in T treatment were extremely significantly increased compared with CK treatment. The determination of endogenous hormones in three periods showed that T treatment mainly affected the contents of auxin and cytokinin, the contents of auxin and cytokinin were positively correlated with the content of major amino acids, and the contents of theanine and aspartic acid were significantly positively correlated with the content of IAA-Ala. T treatment was beneficial to the accumulation of auxin and cytokinin in new shoots of tea plants in spring, promoted the germination and growth of lateral buds of tea plants, increased the yield, and T treatment was also beneficial to the accumulation of major amino acid components, such as theanine, aspartic acid, glutamate, serine, and improved the quality of tea.

Fertilizer management, especially the precise application of panicle fertilizer, has a significant impact on rice yield, quality, and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). To determine a reasonable panicle fertilizer ratio and application leaf-age stage for the rice-growing region along the Yellow River in Henan Province, this study used rice variety Bianjing 5 as the experimental material. At a nitrogen application rate of 277.5 kg/ha, the effects of two nitrogen fertilizer management modes—the conventional mode (with panicle fertilizer applied at the 2nd and 1st leaf stages from the top) and the precise delayed mode (with panicle fertilizer applied at the 4th and 3rd leaf stages from the top)—combined with silicon and zinc fertilizer on the yield, grain quality, and NUE of japonica rice were investigated. The results showed that both the precise delayed nitrogen mode and the application of silicon and zinc fertilizers had significant yield-increasing effects, with increments ranging from 3.9% to 13.2%. The precise delayed nitrogen mode improved yield by increasing the effective panicle number, improving the panicle-forming rate and grain number per panicle, while silicon and zinc supplementation improved yield by increasing grain number per panicle and 1000-grain weight. The precise delayed nitrogen mode combined with silicon and zinc application significantly increased the milled rice rate and head rice rate, reduced the chalky grain rate and chalkiness, and effectively improved the appearance and processing quality of the rice. Furthermore, the precise delayed nitrogen mode significantly improved nitrogen uptake efficiency, physiological nitrogen efficiency, nitrogen agronomic efficiency, and nitrogen partial productivity, while silicon and zinc application significantly enhanced nitrogen agronomic efficiency and nitrogen partial factor productivity. In conclusion, the precise delayed nitrogen mode combined with silicon and zinc fertilization contributes to the construction of a healthy population of japonica rice in the rice-growing region along the Yellow River in Henan Province, achieving synergistic improvement in yield, grain quality, and nitrogen use efficiency.