AgronomyPub Date : 2024-09-14DOI: 10.3390/agronomy14092099
Jihong Sun, Zhaowen Li, Fusheng Li, Yingming Shen, Ye Qian, Tong Li
{"title":"EF yolov8s: A Human–Computer Collaborative Sugarcane Disease Detection Model in Complex Environment","authors":"Jihong Sun, Zhaowen Li, Fusheng Li, Yingming Shen, Ye Qian, Tong Li","doi":"10.3390/agronomy14092099","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14092099","url":null,"abstract":"The precise identification of disease traits in the complex sugarcane planting environment not only effectively prevents the spread and outbreak of common diseases but also allows for the real-time monitoring of nutrient deficiency syndrome at the top of sugarcane, facilitating the supplementation of relevant nutrients to ensure sugarcane quality and yield. This paper proposes a human–machine collaborative sugarcane disease detection method in complex environments. Initially, data on five common sugarcane diseases—brown stripe, rust, ring spot, brown spot, and red rot—as well as two nutrient deficiency conditions—sulfur deficiency and phosphorus deficiency—were collected, totaling 11,364 images and 10 high-definition videos captured by a 4K drone. The data sets were augmented threefold using techniques such as flipping and gamma adjustment to construct a disease data set. Building upon the YOLOv8 framework, the EMA attention mechanism and Focal loss function were added to optimize the model, addressing the complex backgrounds and imbalanced positive and negative samples present in the sugarcane data set. Disease detection models EF-yolov8s, EF-yolov8m, EF-yolov8n, EF-yolov7, and EF-yolov5n were constructed and compared. Subsequently, five basic instance segmentation models of YOLOv8 were used for comparative analysis, validated using nutrient deficiency condition videos, and a human–machine integrated detection model for nutrient deficiency symptoms at the top of sugarcane was constructed. The experimental results demonstrate that our improved EF-yolov8s model outperforms other models, achieving mAP_0.5, precision, recall, and F1 scores of 89.70%, 88.70%, 86.00%, and 88.00%, respectively, highlighting the effectiveness of EF-yolov8s for sugarcane disease detection. Additionally, yolov8s-seg achieves an average precision of 80.30% with a smaller number of parameters, outperforming other models by 5.2%, 1.9%, 2.02%, and 0.92% in terms of mAP_0.5, respectively, effectively detecting nutrient deficiency symptoms and addressing the challenges of sugarcane growth monitoring and disease detection in complex environments using computer vision technology.","PeriodicalId":7601,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy","volume":"67 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142269356","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AgronomyPub Date : 2024-09-13DOI: 10.3390/agronomy14092095
Zhiyou Zou, Aziz Khan, Adnan Khan, Zhongyi Tao, Sheng Zhang, Qiteng Long, Jinfu Lin, Shunshe Luo
{"title":"Activation of ABA Signaling Pathway and Up-Regulation of Salt-Responsive Genes Confer Salt Stress Tolerance of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Seedlings","authors":"Zhiyou Zou, Aziz Khan, Adnan Khan, Zhongyi Tao, Sheng Zhang, Qiteng Long, Jinfu Lin, Shunshe Luo","doi":"10.3390/agronomy14092095","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14092095","url":null,"abstract":"Salt is a potent abiotic stress that arrests plant growth by impairing their physio-biochemical and molecular processes. However, it is unknown how the ABA signaling system and vacuolar-type Na+/H+ antiporter proteins induce stress tolerance in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seedlings. The present study aimed to identify salt-responsive proteins and signaling pathways involved in the resistance of wheat to salt stress. We explored the proteome profile, 20 amino acids, 14 carbohydrates, 8 major phytohormones, ion content, and salt tolerance genes in wheat (Triticum aestivum L., cv.) under 200 mM NaCl with control plants for six days. The results showed that amino acids such as alanine, serine, proline, glutamine, and aspartic acid were highly expressed under salt stress compared with control plants, suggesting that amino acids are the main players in salinity tolerance. The ABA signaling system was activated in response to salinity stress through the modulation of protein phosphatase 2C (PP2C) and ABA-responsive element binding factor (ABF), resulting in an ABA-mediated downstream response. Additionally, the vacuolar-type Na+/H+ antiporter was identified as a key protein in salt stress tolerance via compartmentalizing Na+ in the vacuole. Furthermore, a significant increase in the abundance of the 14-3-3 protein was noticed in salt-fed plants, suggesting that this protein plays an important role in Na+ compartmentalization. Moreover, up-regulation of ascorbate peroxidase (APX), glutathione-S-transferase (GST), and thioredoxin-scavenged reactive oxygen species resulted in improved plant growth under salt stress. These data will help to identify salt-responsive proteins that can be used in future breeding programs to develop salt-tolerant varieties.","PeriodicalId":7601,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy","volume":"103 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142209247","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Facing Heavy Metal Stress, What Are the Positive Responses of Melatonin in Plants: A Review","authors":"Xianghan Cheng, Xiaolei Liu, Feifei Liu, Yuantong Yang, Taiji Kou","doi":"10.3390/agronomy14092094","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14092094","url":null,"abstract":"With the growth of the population and the development of modern industry and the economy, the problem of heavy metal pollution in cultivated soil has become increasingly prominent. Moreover, heavy metal poses a serious threat to plant growth due to its characteristics of difficult degradation, high mobility, easy enrichment, and potential toxicity and has become a social topic. Melatonin is a new type of plant hormone widely present in animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria, and its biological role has begun investigated in the last dozen years. Facing heavy metal stress, melatonin can play a pleiotropic role in the physiological processes of plants, such as stress resistance and growth regulation, mitigate the damage caused by stress on plants, and provide a new research idea for alleviating heavy metal stress in plants. From the aspects of the plant phenotype, physiology, element absorption, and molecular structure, this paper, therefore, mainly reviews the effects of melatonin on plants subjected to heavy metal stress and the mechanism of melatonin alleviating heavy metal stress and then puts forward future research directions. This information may be of great significance to the normal growth of crops under heavy metal stress and will provide an important theoretical basis for the genetic improvement of crop resistance in the future.","PeriodicalId":7601,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142263928","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AgronomyPub Date : 2024-09-13DOI: 10.3390/agronomy14092092
Ismail Tas, Sevim Akcura, Mahmut Kaplan, Barbara Jagosz, Atılgan Atılgan, Joanna Kocięcka, Roman Rolbiecki, Daniel Liberacki, Stanisław Rolbiecki
{"title":"The Effect of Drip Irrigation and Nitrogen Levels on the Oil and Fatty Acid Composition of Sesame and Its Economic Analysis","authors":"Ismail Tas, Sevim Akcura, Mahmut Kaplan, Barbara Jagosz, Atılgan Atılgan, Joanna Kocięcka, Roman Rolbiecki, Daniel Liberacki, Stanisław Rolbiecki","doi":"10.3390/agronomy14092092","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14092092","url":null,"abstract":"One of the oldest oilseed crops is sesame, which is mainly cultivated due to its valuable oleic/linolenic fatty acid ratio. The application of precise irrigation and fertilisation is crucial to ensure the continuity and productivity of sesame production, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. This study aimed to determine the effect of drip irrigation and nitrogen levels on sesame’s oil and fatty acid composition. For this purpose, four nitrogen doses (N0: 0 kg ha−1, N30: 30 kg ha−1, N60: 60 kg ha−1 and N90: 90 kg ha−1) and three different irrigation water levels (I50, I75 and I100, which correspond to 50, 75 and 100% evaporation levels from the evaporation of the Class A pan) were applied. The highest oleic acid content (43.06%) was obtained for the I75N90 treatment. In the case of linoleic fatty acid, the greatest value (43.66%) was for I50N0 treatment. The effects of irrigation and nitrogen doses on oleic acid and linoleic acid content were inverse of each other. An increase in applied irrigation water increased the linoleic acid content. However, it caused a decrease in oleic acid content. Increasing the nitrogen dose increased the oleic acid content and caused a decrease in linoleic acid content. Furthermore, this study showed that the I50N60 treatment (50% Epan and a rate of 60 kg N ha−1) is the most effective for achieving high grain and oil yields in sesame cultivation. The results obtained provide practical guidance for farmers in sesame cultivation.","PeriodicalId":7601,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy","volume":"42 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142209216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AgronomyPub Date : 2024-09-13DOI: 10.3390/agronomy14092093
Alice Adenike Olatunji, Andrew Saba Gana, Kehinde D. Tolorunse, Paterne A. Agre, Patrick Adebola, Asrat Asfaw
{"title":"Agronomic Performance and Yield Stability of Elite White Guinea Yam (Dioscorea rotundata) Genotypes Grown in Multiple Environments in Nigeria","authors":"Alice Adenike Olatunji, Andrew Saba Gana, Kehinde D. Tolorunse, Paterne A. Agre, Patrick Adebola, Asrat Asfaw","doi":"10.3390/agronomy14092093","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14092093","url":null,"abstract":"Yam (Dioscorea spp.) is a main staple tuber crop in Nigeria and the West African region. Its performance is determined by genotypes and also the environment of growth. This study assessed the agronomic performance and yield stability of elite white yam (Dioscorea rotundata) genotypes across diverse Nigerian environments. A total of 25 genotypes were evaluated at three locations in two consecutive growing seasons, 2022 and 2023, for fresh tuber yield, disease resistance, and tuber quality traits. The genotype’s performance and stability for the measured traits were assessed using various analytical tools such as additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) and multi-trait stability index (MTSI). The AMMI analysis revealed significant differences among the genotypes and across the environments for all traits (p < 0.001, p < 0.01). The PCA revealed that the first two principal components (PC1 and PC2) explained a substantial portion of the total variation (49.84%). The MTSI identified four clones: G18, G19, G24, and G16 as promising candidates for improved yam production in Nigeria with high and stable performance for the multiple traits.","PeriodicalId":7601,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142209218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AgronomyPub Date : 2024-09-13DOI: 10.3390/agronomy14092090
Jing Li, Ning Yu, Can-Can Lv, Long Tie, Jia-Ju Pang, Jin-Wang Zhang, Jun Wang
{"title":"Induction of Tetraploids in Phellodendron amurense Rupr. and Its Effects on Morphology and Alkaloid Content","authors":"Jing Li, Ning Yu, Can-Can Lv, Long Tie, Jia-Ju Pang, Jin-Wang Zhang, Jun Wang","doi":"10.3390/agronomy14092090","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14092090","url":null,"abstract":"Phellodendron amurense Rupr. is a precious medicinal tree species in northeast China. However, P. amurense resources have been severely destroyed due to uncontrolled overharvest and the limited innovation of new germplasms by traditional cross-breeding. In this study, polyploid breeding was introduced to the improvement program of P. amurense. Fifty-four tetraploid plants of P. amurense were first produced by colchicine-induced adventitious bud chromosome doubling in stem segment explants. The induction frequency reached 36.16% (1.0 g L−1 colchicine solution for 48 h treatment) and 50.00% (2.0 g L−1 colchicine solution for 24 h treatment), respectively, showing the high efficiency of the somatic chromosome doubling based on the organogenesis system. Tetraploidization resulted in significant phenotypic variation, such as larger and thicker leaves, thicker stems, and bigger stomata. Ultra-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS/MS) analysis identified 59 differentially accumulated alkaloids (DAAs) between the leaf and stem samples of tetraploids, including 32 upregulated and 27 downregulated in stems. For both leaf and stem samples, 18 DAAs were identified between diploids and tetraploids, with 16 DAAs upregulated in tetraploid leaves and 8 upregulated in tetraploid stems, suggesting that polyploidization caused significant alterations in alkaloid contents in leaves and stems of P. amurense. The contents of the main medicinal compounds, such as berberine, jatrorrhizine, phellodendrine, and palmatine, increased significantly in the leaf and/or stem samples after polyploidization. This finding implied that polyploid breeding might be an effective approach for improving P. amurense, beneficial to preserving and exploiting natural resources.","PeriodicalId":7601,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142209377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AgronomyPub Date : 2024-09-13DOI: 10.3390/agronomy14092089
Yanbing Chi, Chenchen Wei, Peiling Yang, Ning Ma
{"title":"Determinants and Pathways of Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Soil Irrigated with Reclaimed Water","authors":"Yanbing Chi, Chenchen Wei, Peiling Yang, Ning Ma","doi":"10.3390/agronomy14092089","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14092089","url":null,"abstract":"Reclaimed water (RW), as a reliable and renewable secondary water source, has become a crucial strategy for many countries to supplement agricultural water usage and alleviate water scarcity. However, despite the increasing use of RW, there has been limited research on the factors affecting soil nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions under RW irrigation. Understanding these factors is essential for guiding RW irrigation practices and controlling greenhouse gas emissions. This research, conducted from 2014 to 2015, includes field experiments designed to systematically assess the effects of soil chemistry properties and temperature on soil N2O emissions under RW irrigation. Subsequent to these field studies, soil samples were collected for 15N isotope trials to examine the impact of RW on the soil N2O production process, including autotrophic nitrification, heterotrophic nitrification, and denitrification. The results showed that RW irrigation influenced soil N2O emissions by affecting soil pH, but not through changes in soil total nitrogen (TN) or soil organic carbon (SOC) content. Moreover, compared to groundwater (UW) irrigation, RW irrigation significantly reduced the temperature sensitivity of soil N2O emissions. The 15N isotope labeling trial indicated that autotrophic nitrification was the primary pathway for soil N2O production under RW irrigation, contributing 60.46%—significantly higher than that observed with UW irrigation. Primary treated sewage (PW) significantly increased soil N2O emissions through the heterotrophic nitrification process compared to RW, with contributions rising from 11.31% to 13.23%. Additionally, RW, compared to UW, significantly increased the copy numbers of soil nitrification genes (ammonia-oxidizing archaea [AOA-amoA]) and denitrification genes (nitrite reductase [nirK and nirS]). Therefore, it is important to appropriately control the nitrification process and balance soil pH to manage soil N2O emissions under RW irrigation.","PeriodicalId":7601,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142209376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AgronomyPub Date : 2024-09-13DOI: 10.3390/agronomy14092091
Abdul Rasheed Kaleri, Jiahua Ma, Ali Murad Jakhar, Awais Ahmed, Yahya Faqir, Chengjia Tan, Slaviša Stanković, Martin Raspor
{"title":"Composting of Cow-Dung-Amended Soil by the Dung Beetle Catharsius molossus L. Improves Bacterial Ecological Functions Related to Nitrogen Mineralization and Human and Plant Pathogenesis","authors":"Abdul Rasheed Kaleri, Jiahua Ma, Ali Murad Jakhar, Awais Ahmed, Yahya Faqir, Chengjia Tan, Slaviša Stanković, Martin Raspor","doi":"10.3390/agronomy14092091","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14092091","url":null,"abstract":"The Asian dung beetle (Catharsius molossus L.; Coleoptera: Scarabeidae) has been shown to positively affect soil bacterial diversity and the agronomic features of crop plants. In this study, we used bioinformatic tools to investigate the differences in bacterial functional phenotypes and ecological functions between control soil, cow dung-amended soil (CD), and cow dung-amended soil composted by dung beetles (DB). The soil bacterial metagenomes were sequenced and analyzed with the bioinformatic packages BugBase, PICRUSt2, Tax4Fun, and FAPROTAX to evaluate the effects of dung beetle-mediated composting on bacterial functions such as human and plant pathogenicity, trophic strategies, and soil nutrient transformation. BugBase proved useful for the determination of differences in major functional phenotypes, whereas FAPROTAX was effective at identifying differences in bacterial ecological functions between the treatments. Both tools suggested a relative decrease in human pathogens in the DB soil. This was corroborated by the pairwise comparison of abundances in bacterial species, which showed a significant reduction in the abundance of the broad-host-range pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the DB soil. In addition, FAPROTAX suggested a decrease in plant pathogens and an increase in chitinolytic bacteria, meaning that the DB treatment might be beneficial to the plant-growth-promoting bacteria involved in biological control. Finally, FAPROTAX revealed an array of ecological functions related to trophic strategies and macro- and micronutrient metabolism. According to these results, the activity of C. molossus beetles enhanced methanotrophy, ammonification, nitrification, sulfate reduction, and manganese oxidation, whereas iron respiration was decreased in the DB-treated soil. Our results represent a collection of general insights into the effects of C. molossus beetles on soil bacterial functions, which also reflect on the nutrient composition of dung beetle-composted soil.","PeriodicalId":7601,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142209378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AgronomyPub Date : 2024-09-11DOI: 10.3390/agronomy14092077
Rym Boukhalfa, Claudia Ruta, Saida Messgo-Moumene, Generosa J. Calabrese, Maria Pia Argentieri, Giuseppe De Mastro
{"title":"Valorization of Mediterranean Species of Thyme for the Formulation of Bio-Herbicides","authors":"Rym Boukhalfa, Claudia Ruta, Saida Messgo-Moumene, Generosa J. Calabrese, Maria Pia Argentieri, Giuseppe De Mastro","doi":"10.3390/agronomy14092077","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14092077","url":null,"abstract":"This study focused on the evaluation of the phytotoxic activity of four essential oils (EOs) from the Mediterranean species of Thymus sp. pl., namely Thymus algeriensis Boiss. et Reut., T. ciliatus Desf. subspecies coloratus (Boiss. et Reut.) Batt., T. vulgaris L. ecotype Fasano and T. vulgaris cultivar L. Varico 3, to identify new biomolecules with herbicide potential. The chemical characterization of EOs was performed by GC-MS. The evaluation of the phytotoxicity of the EOs was conducted under in vitro conditions, and the inhibition of germination and seedling growth of Lolium perenne L. and Amaranthus retroflexus L. were assessed. Five concentrations (100, 250, 500, 750 and 1000 µL/100 mL) were considered. Phytochemical analysis revealed a great diversity of compounds. T. algeriensis and T. ciliatus EOs were characterized by the absence of carvacrol and a low content of thymol in T. ciliatus. On the contrary, T. vulgaris ecotype Fasano and T. vulgaris cultivar Varico 3 were characterized by an important content of p-cymene, thymol and carvacrol. All the EOs expressed a potent phytotoxic activity against the tested species. The total inhibition of seed germination and seedling growth were recorded for the highest concentrations of all the EOs. T. vulgaris ecotype Fasano expressed the most effective activity.","PeriodicalId":7601,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142209217","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AgronomyPub Date : 2024-09-11DOI: 10.3390/agronomy14092075
Mohamed Houssemeddine Sellami, Ida Di Mola, Lucia Ottaiano, Eugenio Cozzolino, Luisa del Piano, Mauro Mori
{"title":"Evaluation of Biodegradable Mulch Films on Melon Production and Quality under Mediterranean Field Conditions","authors":"Mohamed Houssemeddine Sellami, Ida Di Mola, Lucia Ottaiano, Eugenio Cozzolino, Luisa del Piano, Mauro Mori","doi":"10.3390/agronomy14092075","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14092075","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines the effects of biodegradable mulches on melon production and quality in a Mediterranean environment, specifically focusing on Mater-Bi and Ecovio in comparison to conventional (low-density polyethylene) LDPE mulch. Biodegradable mulches influenced soil temperature, with Mater-Bi maintaining higher maximum soil temperatures conducive to crop growth, while Ecovio exhibited lower maximum temperatures beneficial in hot summer months. Results revealed a significant increase in melon yield with biodegradable mulches, with both Ecovio and Mater-Bi demonstrating higher yields at approximately 20.41 t ha−1, showing an improvement of 23.4% compared to LDPE. Although mulching did not impact the number, weight, or distal diameter of marketable fruits, it affected the apical diameter, with Ecovio-treated plants displaying an 8.4% larger apical diameter compared to the average of all treatments. Furthermore, mulching influenced fruit quality parameters such as consistency, pulp thickness, sugar content, and anti-oxidant activity, with Mater-Bi exhibiting the best performance. Since both Mater-Bi and Ecovio possess strengths and weaknesses, selecting the optimal mulch depends on the farmer’s specific objectives and local growing conditions. Overall, the study suggests that biodegradable mulches, particularly Ecovio, offer a sustainable alternative to traditional plastic films, contributing to environmental preservation and enhancing melon yield and quality in Mediterranean agricultural settings.","PeriodicalId":7601,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy","volume":"58 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142209222","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}