ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Nutrition
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1655710
Optimizing irrigation and fertilization management enhances alfalfa seed yield components through improved soil nutrient availability and leaf photosynthetic efficiency
Provisionally accepted
- 1College of Animal Science and Technology, Shihezi University, Shihezi, China
- 2Massey University School of Agriculture and Environment, Palmerston North, New Zealand
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Addressing the challenges of inefficient water-fertilizer utilization and suboptimal seed yield in alfalfa seed production systems, we investigated the effects of differential irrigation-fertilization regimes on soil nutrient dynamics, photosynthetic performance, and yield parameters. This study aims to optimize seed production while elucidating the response mechanisms linking soil nutrient availability, foliar photosynthetic efficiency, and seed yield outcomes. This experiment employed drip irrigation to address production constraints in alfalfa seed cultivation. Using 'WL354HQ ' and 'Xinmu No.4' as the experimental materials, a two-factor randomized block design was adopted, with three fertilization levels: F0 (no fertilizer), F1 (90 kg•ha -1 N 75 kg•ha -1 P2O5, 12 kg•ha -1 K2O), and F2 (120 kg•ha -1 N, 100 kg•ha -1 P2O5, 15 kg•ha -1 K2O), and combined with three irrigation levels W1 (1650 m 3 •ha -1 ), W2 (2500 m 3 •ha -1 ), and W3 (3350 m 3 •ha -1 ). The research results show that water and fertilizer management is a prerequisite for high yield of alfalfa seeds, and the impact of fertilization on seed yield is greater than that of irrigation. Compared to the non-fertilized control (F0W1), the F2W2 treatment significantly increased soil nutrients in the 0-20 cm layer: soil total nitrogen content (+52.17%), total phosphorus content (+18.72%), and organic carbon content (+16.85%), and available phosphorus content (+37.34%), and alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen content (+17.45%). Notably, F2W2 enhanced net photosynthetic rate by 35.04% despite reduced stomatal conductance (-2.14%) and intercellular CO2 concentration (-9.50%), thereby promoting assimilate partitioning to reproductive organs. Consequently, seed dimensional parameters (width: +53.02%; thickness: +21.75%) and germination rate (+23.11%) were significantly improved (P < 0.05), increasing the seed yields of WL354HQ and Xinmu No.4 by 42.76% and 49.81% respectively. Correlation analysis revealed significant (P < 0.01) positive associations between seed yield and seed length, seed width, seed thickness, chlorophyll a, carotenoids, total chlorophyll content, and net photosynthetic rate. Principal component analysis showed that the optimal fertilization level was N 120 kg•ha -1 ; P2O5 100 kg•ha -1 ; K2O 15 kg•ha -1 , with an irrigation level of 2500 m 3 •ha -1 (F2W2) as the optimal model.
Keywords: Drip irrigation optimization, Alfalfa seed production, seed morphology, soil nutrient availability, photosynthetic efficiency
Received: 28 Jun 2025; Accepted: 05 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hui, Sun, Wei, Cartmill, Lopez, Ma and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Qianbing Zhang, College of Animal Science and Technology, Shihezi University, Shihezi, China
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