Plastic film mulching with ridge planting alters soil chemical and biological properties to increase potato yields in semiarid Northwest China

Abstract

Background The growth of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is severely affected by the complex and variable soil environment, and film mulching has been widely used for potato growth in semiarid areas of western China. However, there are few studies on the effects of film mulching on soil quality and tuber yield in potato fields. Methods The effects of four mulching patterns (flat plot without film mulching, FP; flat plot with film mulching, FPM; ridge planting with half mulch, RPHM; ridge planting with full mulch, RPFM) on soil chemical and biological properties and potato tuber yield were investigated during two growing seasons (2018 and 2019) in the field. Results The results showed that compared with FP, the mulching treatments significantly increased the tuber yield of potato, with an increase of 3.7–20.77% and 7.89–26.35% in 2018 and 2019, respectively, and the yield of RPFM was higher than that of other treatments. In both growing seasons, RPFM significantly increased the contents of alkali-hydrolyzed N and available P, and the activities of soil urease, catalase, alkaline phosphatase, and sucrase. Bacterial and actinomycete counts were significantly higher in RPFM than those in the other treatments. Furthermore, RPFM significantly increased large potatoes and decreased small potatoes. Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed that soil alkaline dissolved nitrogen and actinomycete populations were the main factors affecting potato yield formation. Conclusions These results indicate that RPFM can improve the soil environment and further increase potato tuber yield, which is a viable option for potato production in semiarid areas. Graphical Abstract

Microbial carbon and nitrogen limitations with mulching of proso millet fields on the Loess Plateau: Evidence from soil ecoenzymatic stoichiometry

“…Previous research found that mulching practices had less significant influence on the SOC content when growing wheat and maize (Yu et al, 2021), similar to our results during the mature period of proso millet in all three regions. This may be because mulching practices increase the mineralization and turnover of SOC, resulting in no significant change in the SOC contents (Shi et al, 2022).…”

“…Previous studies support our findings (Chen et al, 2021; Cui et al, 2020; Liu et al, 2022). These results suggested increases in soil extracellular enzyme activity can improve soil nutrients (Shi et al, 2022). In all three regions, PFM and RF distinctly impacted the soil extracellular enzyme activity, confirming previous reports that the types of mulching technique also influenced the levels of extracellular enzymes (Shi et al, 2022; Zhang, You, et al, 2019).…”

“…Similarly, PFM treatment significantly enhanced soil moisture and temperature in each of the growth periods of proso millet in all three regions ( p < 0.05, Table 3). Soil is the main source of the nutrients absorbed by crops, and the content of soil nutrients influences the health of crops (Fu et al, 2019; Shi et al, 2022). PFM and RF treatments considerably increased the available nutrients in the soil during the jointing period of proso millet in all three regions, revealing that variation in the soil hydrothermal environment promotes the decomposition of chemical fertilizers applied to the soil, thereby altering the available nutrients in the soil (Fan et al, 2019; Li, Hu, et al, 2021).…”

Effects of Film Mulching and Irrigation on Biomass of Leaves, Roots and Tubers and Soil Nutrient Characteristics of Cyperus esculentus L.

“…was affected by lm mulching. Mulching was able to increase biomass and raise soil temperature, promote plant growth, and increase plant biomass and yield when compared to the NFM treatment (Mo et al, 2020;Niu et al, 2020;Shi et al, 2022). However, the aboveground biomass of C. esculentus rst increased and then decreased with increasing irrigation, and the above-underground biomass reached the maximum value in the T2 treatment.…”

Use of metagenomics and metabolomics to quantify changes in rhizosphere soil microbial function in response to mulching regimes

“…Similar observations have been confirmed in several kinds of literature (Akhtar et al, 2018; Wang, Wang, et al, 2021). Overall, the improvement of rhizosphere soil enzyme activities indicated that the soil quality might be improved, which may be attributed to variations in the number of soil microorganisms in the mulching regimes, and there are differences in the catabolic capacity of soil microorganisms, thereby impacting the enzyme activities (Mendonça et al, 2021; Shi et al, 2022).…”