Genomics and Applied Biology 2026, Vol.17, No.1, 26-36 http://bioscipublisher.com/index.php/gab 32 Therefore, when discussing ridge height here, one cannot simply copy the experience from dryland areas, but needs to consider drainage, ventilation and mechanical harvesting on the same weight scale (Figure 1) (Colombi et al., 2018). At the same time, this area has both fresh food and processing uses, and both yield and uniform potato shape with reduced harvesting damage are required, which also determines that ridge height is not only a parameter for regulating the growth environment, but also a structural parameter for serving mechanized operations. Figure 1 Perforation of compacted soil with steel wire along a 2 by 2 cm grid in a) soil columns and b) in the field. c) Root sampling in the field in 0-10 cm depth. d) Crossing (Cr) and colonisation (Col) of artificial macropores by soybean roots grown in soil columns. e) Vertical cross-sections of reconstructed computed tomography scans of crossing and colonising soybean roots grown in soil columns. f) Artificial macropores of a field sample at their actual position (grey) and after rotation around the central z-axis (yellow) (Adopted from Colombi et al., 2018) 6.2 Yield and quality performance of sweet potato under different furrow heights This case adopted a two-factor split-plot design, combining furrow spacing and furrow height to examine their effects on the yield of “Longzhu 14” and the performance of small harvesters. The main objective was to identify the furrow type that is more suitable for mechanization. Although the full treatment values were not provided in the public abstract, the trend of the results was quite clear: as the furrow height increased, the number of tubers per plant and the proportion of medium-large tubers increased, while the weight per tuber and total yield showed an initial increase followed by a decrease (Li et al., 2019); when the furrow spacing was appropriately reduced, it was overall beneficial for the improvement of yield-related indicators. Such “turning-point” changes are actually not unexpected - when the furrow height increases from low to medium, the improvement in drainage and aeration leads to increased yield; further raising the furrow height, if the water supply cannot keep up or the soil becomes too loose causing fluctuations in moisture conditions, the advantage is weakened and even a reduction in yield may occur. One methodological reminder given by this case is: the furrow height experiment should at least have three gradient levels and soil moisture should be monitored simultaneously; otherwise, it is easy to draw simple conclusions such as “higher furrows are definitely better” or “lower furrows are more reliable” (Villordon et al., 2019). 6.3 Insights from the case study on production practices and recommendations for appropriate furrow height In this experiment, the combination of a 80 cm furrow spacing and a 30 cm furrow height performed the most outstandingly: the yield reached 42.91 t/hm², the number of tubers per plant and the proportion of medium-large tubers were at relatively high levels, the clear tuber rate also reached 96.40%, which was more conducive to the
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