Genomics and Applied Biology 2026, Vol.17, No.1, 51-60 http://bioscipublisher.com/index.php/gab 54 If the density is further increased, the situation changes. The yield per plant decreases more rapidly, and the newly added plants cannot make up for the losses. The overall yield growth slows down, and even declines. This shows that dense planting is not necessarily better when it goes too far; it can actually hinder the final yield (Ojala et al., 1990; Ierna et al., 2011). 3.3 Field verification and analysis of the optimal planting density range When analyzing the yield data of various density treatments, the results are not simply a matter of which is higher or lower. What is interesting is that when the density roughly falls within the range of 50,000 to 60,000 plants per hectare, the yield per unit area has already reached the highest level, and there is no significant difference between different treatments. Regardless of whether the density is lower than this range or denser, the yield becomes less stable and the overall performance is slightly inferior. When this result is compared with existing research, it is found that this situation is not uncommon and similar performance is observed under different conditions. For actual production, controlling the planting density within this range makes it easier to achieve relatively ideal and stable yield increase effects (Zebarth et al., 2006; Ierna et al., 2011). 4 Effects of planting density on the uniformity of tubers 4.1 Evaluation indicators and grading standards for tuber uniformity When assessing the uniformity of potato growth, the research did not focus solely on the yield. Instead, it concentrated on the potato tubers themselves. After harvest, the tubers were first classified based on their weight or size. Those weighing over 150 grams were classified as large tubers, those ranging from 50 to 150 grams as medium tubers, and those less than 50 grams as small tubers. At the same time, abnormal malformed tubers with irregular shapes were also separately counted. Compared to simply looking at the weight in kilograms, the research paid more attention to the proportion of medium-sized tubers that met the commercial requirements. This proportion is often used to reflect the degree of uniformity. Additionally, a supplementary judgment was made by calculating the dispersion of the tuber weights. The smaller the value, the more concentrated and uniform the size distribution (Love et al., 1998; Ierna et al., 2011).In the spring of 2025, we conducted a potato planting density experiment on the farm, and the results showed that under reasonable planting conditions, the yield of fresh potatoes increased by more than 30%, and the rate of large and medium-sized potatoes increased by more than 20% (Figure 2). Figure 2 Spring potato planting base of Jinyun County Tongyuefang Family Farm (Left: Harvesting Potatoes; Right: Fresh Tubers) (Photographed by Jin Zhang) 4.2 Distribution characteristics of potato tubers under different density conditions From the harvest results, it can be seen that the size distribution of potato tubers varies significantly under different densities. When the planting density is relatively sparse, the proportion of large tubers is higher, while small tubers are scarce. The individual tubers are large in size, but the difference in size is also quite obvious. When the density is too high, the situation is exactly the opposite. The number of small tubers increases
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