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Agronomy
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Efficient Management of Water, Energy, Fertilizer, and Rhizosphere Microbiome for...
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Efficient Management of Water, Energy, Fertilizer, and Rhizosphere Microbiome for Facility Crops

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Farming Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2023) | Viewed by 3733

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Lichun Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Information Technology Research Center, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China
Interests: nutrient solution management for hydroponic crops; fertigation technology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Xingang Zhou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Horticulture, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China
Interests: vegetable responses to biotic and abiotic stresses
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Greenhouse vegetable cultivation is one of the most intensive agricultural production systems, playing an important part for stable, year-round vegetable supply. Compared with open field cultivation, a larger amount of fertilizer, water, and energy are invested to increase the yield of products. However, oversupply of water and fertilizer usually eteriorate crop rootzone medium and negatively affect vegetable quality and yield. Meanwhile, unreasonable use of energy increases the cost of production. All these management practices can alter the rhizosphere microbiome, which is critical for plant fitness. Efficient use of water, fertilizer, and energy resources is vital in terms of increasing production, profit, and competitiveness of facility agriculture.

This Special Issue welcomes original research and review articles that provide updated state-of-the-art of theory, methods, technologies in greenhouse management that can contribute to higher water nutrient and energy use efficiency, and environmentally sustainable production of facility crops.

Dr. Lichun Wang
Dr. Xingang Zhou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • greenhouse
  • fertigation
  • climate control
  • irrigation
  • soil
  • soilless
  • energy

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 2829 KiB  
Article
Simulation of Soil Water and Nitrogen Dynamics for Tomato Crop Using EU-Rotate_N Model at Different Nitrogen Levels in the Greenhouse
by Ikram Ullah, Zhuangzhuang Cao, Hua Bing, Xiangying Xu and Minmin Miao
Agronomy 2023, 13(8), 2006; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13082006 - 28 Jul 2023
Viewed by 853
Abstract
To pursue high yields, the excessive application of nitrogen (N) fertilizer has been reported in high-residual soil nitrate levels, excessive nitrate leaching, and nitrate contamination of groundwater. In this study, tomato crops (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) were subjected to various nitrogen treatments, and [...] Read more.
To pursue high yields, the excessive application of nitrogen (N) fertilizer has been reported in high-residual soil nitrate levels, excessive nitrate leaching, and nitrate contamination of groundwater. In this study, tomato crops (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) were subjected to various nitrogen treatments, and the nitrate nitrogen content, soil water content at different soil layers, dry matter, and yield were measured. A mechanistic model, EU-Rotate_N, was used to simulate the aforementioned indexes in a region of Jiangsu province with a relatively higher water table. The predicted values of soil moisture and soil nitrate content at various soil depths agree well with the measured values during tomato growth. The statistical index of soil water content ranged from 0.367 to 0.749, 0.856 to 0.947, and the statistical index of soil nitrate nitrogen content ranged from 0.365 to 0.698, and 0.869 to 0.932, for Autumn-Winter (AW) and Spring-Summer (SS) crops, respectively. Moreover, the dry weight and yield simulation effects of the tomato are also in good agreement with the actual measured values. The results show that the EU-Rotate_N model is effective in simulating soil water content, nitrate nitrogen content, dry matter quality, and yield in Jiangsu province, with little underestimation in soil water content at a soil depth of 20–30 cm during SS, which might be improved further considering the high water table of the region. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Efficient Management of Water, Energy, Fertilizer, and Rhizosphere Microbiome for Facility Crops)
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12 pages, 1841 KiB  
Article
Biochar Amendment Suppressed Fusarium Wilt and Altered the Rhizosphere Microbial Composition of Tomatoes
by Xue Jin, Xingang Zhou, Fengzhi Wu, Wensheng Xiang and Kai Pan
Agronomy 2023, 13(7), 1811; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13071811 - 7 Jul 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1249
Abstract
The effectiveness of biochar application to promote plant growth and suppress plant diseases is usually dependent on the application dose of the biochar. Here, we evaluated the effects of biochar supplied at 0%, 1%, 2%, and 3% (w/w) on [...] Read more.
The effectiveness of biochar application to promote plant growth and suppress plant diseases is usually dependent on the application dose of the biochar. Here, we evaluated the effects of biochar supplied at 0%, 1%, 2%, and 3% (w/w) on tomato growth, Fusarium wilt disease severity, and rhizosphere microbial community diversity. We found that biochar applied at 1% and 2% promoted tomato growth and decreased the severity of Fusarium wilt disease. High-throughput amplicon sequencing indicated that 1% biochar decreased the alpha diversity and altered the composition of the bacterial and fungal community in the tomato rhizosphere, increasing the abundance of potential plant-beneficial microorganisms. Quantitative PCR confirmed that all doses of biochar increased the abundance of rhizosphere bacteria; biochar applied at 1% and 2% decreased the abundance of rhizosphere fungi and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Lycopersici (FOL), while biochar applied at 3% increased abundance of FOL. Our results indicated that biochar applied at 1% and 2% suppressed tomato Fusarium wilt disease, which might be linked to the change of the rhizosphere microbial community structure and increased the abundance of potential plant-beneficial microorganisms such as Pseudomonas sp. within the microbiome. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Efficient Management of Water, Energy, Fertilizer, and Rhizosphere Microbiome for Facility Crops)
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17 pages, 11637 KiB  
Article
Improvement of Straw Changed Soil Microbial Flora Composition and Suppressed Chinese Cabbage (Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis) Clubroot Disease
by Chengqian Di, Zhe Han, Chang Chai, Jian Sun, Fengzhi Wu and Kai Pan
Agronomy 2023, 13(7), 1688; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13071688 - 23 Jun 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1213
Abstract
Straw incorporation is known as an environmentally friendly agricultural practice that can effectively enhance soil nutrient contents and crop yields; its potential to suppress soil-borne disease has also been reported in recent years. Here, we perform a field experiment for two consecutive years [...] Read more.
Straw incorporation is known as an environmentally friendly agricultural practice that can effectively enhance soil nutrient contents and crop yields; its potential to suppress soil-borne disease has also been reported in recent years. Here, we perform a field experiment for two consecutive years (2017–2018) to evaluate the effectiveness of maize (Zea mays), rice (Oryzae sativa L.) and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) straws incorporation in alleviating Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis) clubroot disease caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae Woronin. Microbial composition in Chinese cabbage rhizosphere and soil P. brassicae abundance were estimated by high-throughput amplicon sequencing and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Results showed that, during the two-year field experimental cycle, all three straw amendments promoted Chinese cabbage plant growth, inhibited clubroot disease and increased the alpha diversity of the bacterial community in Chinese cabbage rhizosphere. Rice and wheat straws also increased the alpha diversity of the fungal community. These straws diversified the composition of the Chinese cabbage rhizosphere microbial community. All three straws promoted Cryptococcus carnescens; both rice and wheat straws stimulated Lysobacter sp.; maize straw boosted Sphingomonas sp. and wheat straw increased Talaromyces sp. These microbial taxa are either considered to have positive influences on plant growth or potential biocontrol effects. In addition, straw amendments also increased soil pH, electrical conductivity, available nitrogen and available potassium contents in both years of the field experiment. Taken together, we concluded that these three gramineous straw amendments ameliorated Chinese cabbage rhizosphere microorganisms, inhibited clubroot disease and promoted the growth of Chinese cabbage, and that rice straw worked best amongst the three. This study could potentially provide a new tactic of massive grain crop straw utilization and a direction in dealing with clubroot disease. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Efficient Management of Water, Energy, Fertilizer, and Rhizosphere Microbiome for Facility Crops)
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