Genomics and Applied Biology 2026, Vol.17, No.1, 51-60 http://bioscipublisher.com/index.php/gab 52 impact of planting density on the growth of the plant population and the formation of yield, serving as the basis for subsequent experiments. On this basis, different density treatments were arranged in the field, and the performance of individual plants, the yield per unit area, and the changes in the size of the potato tubers were compared one by one. An attempt was made to find a less extreme range of dense planting. At the same time, the practical difficulties in reality were not avoided, such as adjusting the row and plant spacing, coordinating water and fertilizer, and the problems of pests, diseases, and lodging that may occur after dense planting. Countermeasures were also considered for all of these. Finally, the approach was tested in typical production areas to see how the actual results were, and then it was judged whether this practice was worth promoting. A relatively feasible planting and cultivation approach was gradually sorted out (Zheng et al., 2016; Qi et al., 2025). 2 The Theoretical Basis of Reasonable Potato Planting Density 2.1 The mechanism of the impact of planting density on the population structure of potatoes Under field conditions, whether potatoes are planted sparsely or densely is first reflected in the appearance of the population, such as the number of plants per unit area and the shape of the leaf layers. When the density is low, each plant has sufficient space, and the growth of the stems and leaves looks good, but the overall leaf area is not high, and much of the light is not utilized in the early stage. As the density increases, the rows are closed earlier, the leaf area accumulates rapidly, and the overall photosynthetic capacity increases accordingly. However, once the density is too high, the lower leaves are constantly shaded, and they tend to age and fall off prematurely, resulting in a decrease in the effective photosynthetic efficiency of the population. At the same time, under high density, the plants often become slender and the leaves stand upright, although this is beneficial for competing for light in the upper layer, it makes the ventilation and light transmission conditions worse. Thus, it can be seen that dense planting continuously affects the population structure and light energy utilization of potatoes by changing the canopy formation and plant type characteristics (Wang et al., 2022; Derebe et al., 2023). 2.2 Characteristics of competition for light, heat, water and nutrients under dense planting conditions Under field conditions, whether potatoes are planted sparsely or densely is first reflected in the appearance of the population, such as the number of plants per unit area and the shape of the leaf layers. When the density is low, each plant has sufficient space, and the growth of the stems and leaves looks good, but the overall leaf area is not high, and much of the light is not utilized in the early stage. As the density increases, the rows are closed earlier, the leaf area accumulates rapidly, and the overall photosynthetic capacity increases accordingly. However, once the density is too high, the lower leaves are constantly shaded, and they tend to age and fall off prematurely, resulting in a decrease in the effective photosynthetic efficiency of the population. At the same time, under high density, the plants often become slender and the leaves stand upright, although this is beneficial for competing for light in the upper layer, it makes the ventilation and light transmission conditions worse. In terms of water and nutrients, increased density also exacerbates competition for soil moisture and nutrient uptake, affecting both photosynthesis and tuber formation (Wu et al., 2020; Meng et al., 2025). Thus, it can be seen that dense planting continuously affects the population structure and light energy utilization of potatoes by changing the canopy formation and plant type characteristics. 2.3 Relationship between rational plant density and yield components When discussing potato yield, it is not advisable to focus solely on a single indicator. Both the number of plants per unit area, the number of tubers formed, and the size of the tubers all play a role. When the plants are planted sparsely in the field, each plant forms more tubers and they are larger in size, resulting in excellent performance per plant. However, due to the low number of plants, the overall yield is not high. As the density gradually increases, the number of tubers per plant and the average weight of the tubers will decrease. However, with more plants participating in tuber formation, the yield per unit area will increase. At a certain density range, the increase in the number of plants and the reduction in the number of tubers per plant basically cancel each other out, and the total yield approaches its peak. If the density is further increased, the
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