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For sustainable biomass production of Miscanthus × giganteus (hereafter miscanthus), understanding the impact of stand age and nitrogen (N) fertilization on biomass yield is crucial. This study investigated the effects of varying N fertilization rates (0, 56, 112, and 168 kg N ha−1) on yield components (tiller height, density, and weight) and their correlations with end‐of‐season biomass yield in miscanthus. We also explored end‐of‐season biomass yield prediction using in‐season traits (canopy height, leaf area index, and leaf chlorophyll content [LCC]). The study was conducted at two sites in Illinois: a previously unfertilized 10‐year‐old miscanthus research stand at Urbana and a 16‐year‐old commercial stand at Pesotum with a history of annual 56N application. Results from 2018 to 2021 in Urbana and 2020 to 2021 in Pesotum showed increased biomass yields with N fertilization, varying by rate, year, and location. Biomass yield in Pesotum peaked at 56N, while in Urbana, it increased significantly at 112 kg N ha−1. Biomass yield was strongly correlated with tiller height and weight measured at Urbana across N rates. Morphological traits measured every 2–3 weeks during the 2020 and 2021 growing seasons showed that canopy height was the strongest single predictor of miscanthus biomass yield, followed by LCC. Mid‐August to September measurements of these traits were the best predictors of biomass yield. Multiple regressions involving the canopy height and LCC further improved yield predictions. We conclude that while N enhances biomass yields of aging miscanthus, the optimum rate depends on the site, environmental conditions, and management history. Nitrogen enhances the biomass yield of mature miscanthus, but optimum rates may vary depending on site‐specific factors, environmental conditions, and management history.

In this study, the genetic and molecular diversity of 60 quinoa accessions was assessed using agronomically important traits related to grain yield as well as microsatellite (SSR) markers, and informative markers linked to the studied traits were identified using association study. The results showed that most of the studied traits had a relatively high diversity, but grain saponin and protein content showed the highest diversity. High diversity was also observed in all SSR markers, but KAAT023, KAAT027, KAAT036, and KCAA014 showed the highest values for most of the diversity indices and can be introduced as the informative markers to assess genetic diversity in quinoa. Population structure analysis showed that the studied population probably includes two subclusters, so that out of 60 quinoa accessions, 29 (48%) and 23 (38%) accessions were assigned to the first and second subclusters, respectively, and eight (13%) accessions were considered as the mixed genotypes. The study of the population structure using Structure software showed two possible subgroups (K = 2) in the studied population and the results of the bar plot confirmed it. Association study using the general linear model (GLM) and mixed linear model (MLM) identified the number of 35 and 32 significant marker-trait associations (MTAs) for the first year (2019) and 37 and 35 significant MTAs for the second year (2020), respectively. Among the significant MTAs identified for different traits, the highest number of significant MTAs were obtained for grain yield and 1000-grain weight with six and five MTAs, respectively.

Background and aims Crop tolerance to waterlogging depends on factors such as species sensitivity and the stage of development that waterlogging occurs. The aim of this study was to identify the critical period for waterlogging on grain yield and its components, when applied during different stages of crop development in wheat and barley. Methods Two experiments were carried out (E1: early sowing date, under greenhouse; E2: late sowing date, under natural conditions). Waterlogging was imposed during 15-20 days in 5 consecutive periods during the crop cycle (from Leaf 1 emergence to maturity). Results The greatest yield penalties occurred when waterlogging was applied from Leaf 7 appearance on the main stem to anthesis (from 34 to 92 % of losses in wheat, and from 40 to 79 % in barley for E1 and E2 respectively). Waterlogging during grain filling reduced yield to a lesser degree. In wheat, reductions in grain number were mostly explained by reduced grain number per spike while in barley, by variations in the number of spikes per plant. Conclusions The time around anthesis was identified as the most susceptible period to waterlogging in wheat and barley. Exposing the crop to more stressful conditions, e.g. delaying sowing date, magnified the negative responses to waterlogging, although the most sensitive stage (around anthesis) remained unchanged.

Soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr) is an important crop, as both food for humans and feed for livestock in Cambodia, but the yields are low, due to use of low yielding genotypes and limited use of inputs. This study aimed to investigate the effects of different genotypes and different N and P fertilizer sources on growth, seed yield, and seed protein of soybean. Five genotypes (Sbung, Hongry, 98C81, ACS1, and Kaiabi) were grown under different N (90 kg N ha−1 from urea, nano-n, Nitroplus, and without N application as control) and P fertilizers (50 kg P ha−1 from Inorganic P, nano-p, Mykovam, and without P application as control) in two screenhouse experiments. Shoot, root, and nodulation traits, as well as seed yield and protein, were significantly affected by genotypes and different N and/or P fertilizer sources. Notably, while genotypes Sbung and 98C81 showed the highest yields among the genotypes, regardless of different N and P fertilizers, only Sbung had the highest seed protein. The application of different N and/or P sources significantly increased seed yield, compared to non-N and -P application. Specifically, seed yield and seed protein were higher when treated with nano-n or urea, and number of nodules, root biomass, and nodule dry weight was increased with Nitroplus, whereas seed yield and protein were higher with nano-p, Mykovam, and inorganic P. Application rate of 90 kg N ha−1 and 50 kg P ha−1 produced higher seed yield and its components and seed protein. We conclude that N and P application as well as Nitroplus inoculation can help increase seed yield of soybean in Cambodia.

Despite evidence from previous case studies showing that agronomic traits partially determine the resulting yield of different rice ( L.) varieties, it remains unclear whether this is true at the ecotype level. Here, an extensive dataset of the traits of 7686 rice varieties, released in China from 1978 to 2017, was used to study the relationship between yield and other agronomic traits. We assessed the association between yield and other agronomic traits for four different rice ecotypes, i.e., indica inbred, indica hybrid, japonica inbred, and japonica hybrid. We found that associations between agronomic traits and yield were ecotype-dependent. For both the indica inbred and indica hybrid ecotypes, we found that greater values of certain traits, including the filled grain number per panicle, 1000-grain-weight, plant height, panicle length, grains per panicle, seed setting rate, long growth period, low panicle number per unit area, and low seed length/width ratio, have accounted for high grain yield. In the japonica inbred and japonica hybrid ecotypes, we found that only high panicle number per unit area and long growth period led to high grain yield. Indirectly, growth period consistently had a positive effect on yield in all ecotypes, and plant height had a positive effect on yield for the indicas and japonica inbred only. Plant height had a negative effect for the japonica hybrid. Altogether, our findings potentially have valuable implications for improving the breeds of rice ecotypes.

Heat is a crucial environmental stress that negatively impacts wheat production worldwide. Marker-assisted breeding can help to develop tolerant genotypes. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data obtained from a RIL (238 Recombinant Inbred Lines) population of HD2808 (heat tolerant) and HUW510 (heat sensitive) wheat genotypes was used for QTL mapping. Data of grain yield (GY) and its component traits i.e., grain filling duration (GFD), grain weight/spike (GWS), grain number/spike (GNS), grain filling rate (GFR), and thousand grain weight (TGW) under normal and stressed conditions over two consecutive years along with the heat susceptibility index (HSI) of these traits were used as phenotypic data for QTL identification. We identified 34 QTLs viz. 8 for (timely sown), 13 (late sown), and 13 (HSI) located on chromosomes 1A, 2A, 2D, 3A, 3B, 3D, 5B, 6B, 6D, 7A, and 7B. The LOD score of these QTLs ranged from 3.01 to 34.47 and their phenotypic variance ranged from 6.99 to 12.22%. SNP markers associated with the identified QTLs were linked with heat stress-tolerant genes. On chromosome 2A, 3 QTLs viz . QHgfr.iiwbr-2A , QHgns.iiwbr-2A, and QLgns.iiwbr-2A for HSIGFR, HSIGNS, and LSGNS respectively were identified to be consistent. These genomic regions are potentially useful and can be used in breeding programs to develop heat-tolerant genotypes.

This experiment was carried out during season of 2020 and 2021 at Erbil governorate to study the forage and grain yield performance of three maize hybrids Zea mays L. as influenced by irrigation skipping at different times. The experiment was laid out in split-plot design with three replications. The irrigation treatments were located at the main plots, and the hybrids were distributed at the subplots. Highly significant effects of irrigation treatments were recorded for forage, grain yield and most of its components at both seasons and their average. The differences among hybrids were not significant for forage yield at both seasons. It was significant for grain yield as the average of both seasons only. The fresh and dry forage yield was affected more by the skipping irrigation during the last two periods of skipping, and the same for the grain yield. That there are no significant differences between the control and skipping during the first period, as the significantly outperformed the grain yield in the last two periods of skipping.

This research aimed to study the impact of the reciprocal cross and heterosis phenomena on numerous tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) characteristics. Fifty-one different traits were measured, including leaf, shoot, root, flower, fruit, yield and yield components, and physiochemical characteristics. The results showed that reciprocal crosses, such as plant mass, petal length, cone length, pistil length, fruit width, fruit length, single fruit weight, fruit flesh weight, seed and placenta weight, number of fruits locules, fruit calyx weight, number of days to flower, total sugar, ascorbic acid, anthocyanin, and total phenolic concentration, significantly influenced various traits. In addition, the results showed that several traits showed positive high parent heterosis, which are the sepal length, pistil length, flower fresh weight, flower dry weight, flower moisture content, number of clusters per plant, number of flowers per plant, number of flowers per cluster, number of fruits per cluster, fruits number per plant, total fruits weight per plant, leaf length, leaf fresh weight, leaf dry weight, number of branches per plant, plant height, plant mass, ascorbic acid, total carotene, and anthocyanin. These results will be significantly helpful for the future breeding program, especially for developing F1 cultivars with significant quality and quantity.

Excess rainfalls may be the cause of waterlogging in soil, which affects the growth and development of wheat. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to examine the effects of waterlogging on shoot and root growth and physiological characteristics of wheat. Three experiments were conducted: experiment 1 (E1): evaluation of seedling growth on ten Iranian winter wheat varieties with waterlogging periods (1–4, 4–8, 8–12, and 12–16 days starting from seed germination). Seminal roots and plumule were investigated at seedling. The others are E2: pretreatment of waterlogging (15 days) at tillering and stem elongation stages and its effects on shoot and root growth at anthesis stage and experiment 3 (E3): pretreatment of waterlogging (15 days) at tillering and jointing stages and its effects on yield and yield components and also evaluation of stress tolerance indexes. The results of the seedling growth test (E1) showed that 1–4- and 4–8-day waterlogging severity reduced seminal root length (94.5 to 93.7 %) and plumule length (86.2 to 50.0 %) compared to control. Results of E2 indicated that waterlogging stress decreased shoot dry weight, root dry weight, total secondary root length, and chlorophyll a + b content of flag leaf by 28–31, 44–35, 20–31, and 28–35 %, respectively. Also, result of E3 showed that the grain yields of wheat varieties at two conditions of stress were different in base tolerance indexes. In general, the responses of wheat varieties to waterlogging were different at the three experiments. The varieties that had the most of dry weight and length of the root were tolerant. Thus, it is possible to use these characteristics as an index for selecting the varieties with tolerance to waterlogging.

Optimizing irrigation strategies is crucial for sustaining cotton production in the face of growing water scarcity. The three-year experimental study (2020–2022) focused on the impact of varying irrigation amounts (320, 370, and 420 mm) and frequencies (4-, 8-, and 12-day intervals) on cotton growth, yield, yield components, and fiber quality in southern Xinjiang. Employing a completely randomized design with three replications, the results indicated higher irrigation amounts resulted in numerically 2.5–7.5% higher lint yields compared to those under medium and low irrigation amounts, notably significant in 2021. Boll density emerged as the primary yield component influencing yield loss due to irrigation amount, followed by seed cotton weight boll−1. Increased boll density was associated with a greater total number of fruiting sites. Additionally, the increased seed cotton weight boll−1 could be linked to an increased seed number boll−1 and a decreased boll fraction at the lower fruiting branches with lower seed cotton weight boll−1. Higher irrigation frequency improved lint yield by increasing boll density, though a significant effect was observed only in 2020. Increased irrigation amounts generally led to longer fiber lengths but lower micronaire values, while increased irrigation frequency resulted in longer, stronger fibers and reduced micronaire values. Furthermore, the highest yield stability was observed under the condition of high irrigation amount and high frequency. This study holds certain guiding significance for water resource management in cotton production in arid regions.