Effects of Crop Straw on the Plant Height, Stem Diameter and

Soluble Sugar Content of Peach (Amygdalus davidiana) Seedlings

Jinrong Zhang

, Panhong Zou

, Yunying Xiao

, Xiangting Xu

, Junjiang Shu

Lijin Lin

and Huashan Lian

1,* g

School of Agriculture and Horticulture, Chengdu Agricultural College, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

College of Horticulture, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

506281331@qq.com,

49939450@qq.com

Jinrong Zhang and Panhong Zou contributed equally to this work

*Corresponding Author

Keywords: Peach (Amygdalus davidiana) Seedlings, Straw, Growth, Soluble Sugar.

Abstract: The study of the effects of adding different crop (rape, rice, wheat, and maize) straw to the soil on the plant

height, stem diameter and soluble sugar of peach (Amygdalus davidiana) seedlings were studied. The plant

height and stem diameter of the peach seedlings treated with rape straw were the largest, 27.09 cm and 3.24

mm, respectively, and the plant height increased by 20.51% compared with the control. The soluble sugar

contents in roots, leaves of peach seedlings treated with wheat straw were the highest, which were 78.14

mg/g and 97.74 mg/g, respectively. Therefore, soil covering of rape straw was beneficial to the growth of

plant height and stem diameter of peach seedlings, and the accumulation of soluble sugar content of peach

seedlings treated with wheat straw was the best.

1 INTRODUCTION

As an economic resource, straw is the product of

agricultural crops, and the people pay more and

more attention to the utilization of straw, and many

utilization methods of straw have been invented,

among which the most important one is returning

straw to the field (Yin 2021). In recent years, a large

number of straw burning has occurred in the world,

however the choice of straw burning not only wastes

resources, but also pollutes the environment (Yin

2021, Wu 2021). The crop straw is mainly used for

rice, wheat, maize, beans and tubers, which can be

used on a large scale because of their extensive

sources (Wu 2021). Many scholars have studied the

use of rape straw in rice fields can bring huge

economic benefits (Zhang 2021, He 2021). Straw is

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0186-9117

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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8036-109X

rich in some specific nutrient elements and nutrients,

under certain conditions, these elements and

nutrients with the rotten straw into the soil to be

absorbed by the plant use (An 2021, Gao 2021).

Many studies have shown that the straw of rape,

maize, rice and wheat can promote the growth of

plants (An 2021, Gao 2021, Chen 2021), and the

application of rape straw can also increase the

content of soluble sugar in maize (An 2021).

Peach (Amygdalus davidiana) is a small

deciduous tree belonging to the genus Prunus in the

family Rosaicaceae (Chen 2021). Peach has very

strong tolerance, such as salt tolerance, alkali

resistance and cold resistance, which is often used as

the rootstock (Wang 2021). The stro ng

adaptability of peach makes people pay more and

more attention to it, and there are more and more

studies on it, and most of them are to study the

benefits brought by peach as a graft material (Wang

2021, Xiang 2019). Peach plays an important role in

returning farmland to forest, restoring soil and

greening (Wu 2020, Benedikt 2020). In this study,

we added the straw of rape, rice, wheat, and maize

on to the soil, and planted peach seedlings, and the

effects of crop straw on the growth and soluble sugar

Zhang, J., Zou, P., Xiao, Y., Xu, X., Shu, J., Lin, L. and Lian, H.

Effects of Crop Straw on the Plant Height, Stem Diameter and Soluble Sugar Content of Peach (Amygdalus davidiana) Seedlings.

DOI: 10.5220/0011392500003443

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Bioinformatics (ICBEB 2022), pages 1249-1253

ISBN: 978-989-758-595-1

1249

content of peach seedlings were studied. The aim of

this study was screened out the best crop straw that

could promote the growth of peach seedlings, and

provide reference for peach production.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

2.1 Materials

The seeds of Amygdalus davidiana were purchased

from the market. The seeds were germinated and

transplanted to a plastic basin containing perlite.

Rape, rice, wheat and maize straw were collected in

the fields around Sichuan Agricultural University,

dried and crushed for reserve use. The soil was

fluvial soil, taken from the farmland around

Chengdu Campus of Sichuan Agricultural

University. The basic physical and chemical

properties of soil were: pH 7.71, organic matter

22.38 g/kg, total nitrogen 1.75 g/kg, total

phosphorus 10.25 g/kg, total potassium 11.32 g/kg,

alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen 87.99 mg/kg, available

phosphorus 55.78 mg/kg, available potassium 41.96

mg/kg.

2.2 Experimental Design

The pot experiment was conducted at the Chengdu

Campus of Sichuan Agricultural University from

April to October 2019. Perlite was installed in 50-

hole high-bottom hole tray for seedling cultivation,

and the chassis was irrigated with 1 L Hoagland

nutrient solution, which was changed every three

days, and cultured day and night in an artificial

climate chamber between 21°C and 23 °C. Air dried

and crushed the soil, passed through a 5 mm sieve,

and filled each plastic basin (20 cm high, 20 cm

diameter) with 3.0 kg of air dried soil. The

experiment consisted of five treatments, including

rape straw, rice straw, wheat straw, maize straw and

no straw (control). The proportion of straw added to

each pot of soil was 10 g/kg, and the mixture was

evenly mixed. Each treatment was repeated 4 times

(4 pots). All potted plants were watered daily,

always maintaining soil moisture at 80% of field

capacity, and transplanted the peach seedlings after

two weeks. In early May 2019, when the seedlings

grow to 6-8 true leaves (6-9 cm height), the

seedlings with the same growth selected and

transplanted into pots, and 4 seedlings (four

directions) planted in each pot. The plastic basins

(about 15 cm height) were placed completely

randomly and the positions were changed randomly

at random intervals to reduce the influence of edge

effect. According to the water requirement of peach

seedlings, watered in time to ensure that the soil is

moist. After 60 days, the plant height and stem

diameter of each seedlings were measured. The

soluble sugar content of plants was determined by

the anthrone colorimetry method (Xiong 2003).

2.3 Statistical Analysis

Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 22.0

statistical software. Data were analysed using a one-

way analysis of variance with the least significant

difference test (p ≤ 0.05).

3 RESULTS

3.1 Plant Height

The difference of plant height after rape, rice and

wheat straw treatment reached a significant level

(Fig. 1). The plant height of the seedlings treated

with rape straw was the highest, 27.09 cm, which

increased by 20.51% (p < 0.05) compared with the

control. The plant height of peach seedlings treated

with rice and wheat straw was lower than that of the

control, which decreased by 31.14% (p < 0.05) and

43.86% (p < 0.05), respectively. The order of plant

height was ranked as rape straw > control > maize

straw > rice straw > wheat straw.

Figure 1: Plant height. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences based on one-way analysis of variance and

the least significant difference test (p ≤ 0.05).

Control Rape Rice Wheat Maize

Treatments

Plant height (cm)-1

ICBEB 2022 - The International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Bioinformatics

1250

Figure 2: Stem diameter. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences based on one-way analysis of variance

and the least significant difference test (p ≤ 0.05).

3.2 Stem Diameter

For stem diameter of peach seedlings, the order was

ranked as rape straw > control > maize straw > rice

straw > wheat straw (Fig. 2). Compared with the

control, the rape straw increased the stem diameter

of peach seedlings by 2.86% (p > 0.05), and the rice

straw, wheat straw, and maize straw decreased the

stem diameter by 2.43% (p > 0.05), 4.42% (p <

0.05), and 0.45% (p > 0.05), respectively.

3.3 Soluble Sugar Content

There was a great difference in the soluble sugar

content of peach seedlings in different treatments

(Table 1). Compared with the control, the soluble

sugar contents in roots, stems, and leaves of peach

seedlings reached a significant level after wheat

straw treatment. The order of soluble sugar content

in roots was wheat straw > rice straw > maize straw

> control > rape straw, soluble sugar content in

stems was rape straw > maize straw > control > rice

straw > wheat straw, and soluble sugar content in

leaves was wheat straw > maize straw > rice straw >

control > rape straw. The root and leaf soluble sugar

contents of peach seedlings treated with wheat were

the highest, which were 78.14 mg/g and 97.74 mg/g,

respectively. The soluble sugar content in leaves of

peach seedlings in the rape straw treatment was

49.08 mg/g, which was 10.92% (p < 0.05) higher

than that in the control. There were no significant

differences in soluble sugar content between maize

straw treatment and control.

Table 1 Soluble sugar content

Treatmen

Roots

(mg/g)

Stems

(mg/g)

Leaves

(mg/g)

Control 60.42±1.94c 44.25±1.26b 94.11±0.92b

Rape 58.88±1.43c 49.08±1.67a 93.12±0.75b

Rice 64.50±2.56b 37.93±0.24c 95.59±2.27ab

Wheat 78.14±2.16a 37.91±1.39c 97.74±1.60a

Maize 61.90±1.17bc 43.94± 1.11b 95.12±1.16ab

Different lowercase letters within a column

indicate significant differences based on one-way

analysis of variance and the least significant

difference test (p ≤ 0.05).

4 DISCUSSIONS

Straw plays an important role in the protection of

ecological homes and agricultural environment, and

the necessity of straw utilization is of great value to

the ecological civilization construction advocated by

China (Wang 2020). When rice straw is applied to

wheat crops, it is found that the use of rice straw can

improve the utilization efficiency of potassium

fertilizer and thus increase the yield (Luo 2019).

According to near-infrared spectroscopy analysis,

rice straw contains abundant soluble proteins (Zhao

2017). In this experiment, the effect of rice straw on

plant height and stem diameter of peach seedlings

was shown to decrease. Different from the previous

research results, the preliminary conclusion was that

2.80

2.85

2.90

2.95

3.00

3.05

3.10

3.15

3.20

3.25

3.30

3.35

Control Rape Rice Wheat Maize

Treatments

Stem diameter (mm)-1

Effects of Crop Straw on the Plant Height, Stem Diameter and Soluble Sugar Content of Peach (Amygdalus davidiana) Seedlings

1251

rice straw had no promoting effect on the growth of

plant height and stem diameter of peach seedlings.

Soluble sugar is an important product of plant

photosynthesis, and its content reflects the intensity

of photosynthesis (Gu 2016). Compared with the

control, the soluble protein content of peach

seedlings treated with rice straw did not change

significantly, indicated that the photosynthesis of

peach seedlings did not increase under the action of

rice straw. Studies have shown that rape straw

returning to the field can increase the aboveground

biomass of maize and improve the nitrogen

absorption of roots (Fu 2016). In this experiment,

rape straw treatment significantly increased the plant

height and stem diameter of peach seedlings which

was consistent with previous experiments. In this

experiment, through the processing of rape straw,

peach seedling soluble sugar content in the stem of

no significant differences compared with controls,

but in the stem, soluble sugar content was

significantly higher than control, preliminary

inference, after the rape straw processing peach

seedling can promote the storage of soluble sugar in

the stem. Maize straw is also widely used in

production, but its effect is not as good as that of

wheat straw and rice straw. In the study of Yue et al.

(Gong 2015), it shows that the application of maize

straw in production could increase soil water

content, but the decrease of soil temperature would

lead to the yield reduction of spring maize.

However, using maize straw in summer maize

planting can increase the yield (Zhang 2014). In this

experiment, compared with control, no significant

increase of maize straw application on plant height,

stem diameter and the content of soluble sugar of

peach seedlings. Studies have found that wheat

straw returning to the field can promote the growth

of maize seedlings, including increasing the stem

diameter and leaf width (Jiang 2014). Mulching with

wheat straw on the soil surface can improve the

yield and quality of pakchoi and tomato (An 2012).

In this experiment, compared with the control, the

plant height and stem diameter of peach seedlings

were significantly decreased after wheat straw

treatment, which was inconsistent with previous

studies. Compared with the control, the soluble

sugar content in stems of seedlings was significantly

decreased after wheat straw treatment, but the

soluble sugar content in the roots and leaves of the

seedlings was significantly higher than that of the

control.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was financially supported by the Youth

Fund Project of Chengdu Agricultural College

(20QN04).

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