ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Nutrition
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1672845
Effects of potassium fertilizer reduction combined with polyaspartic acid application on yield, quality, processing characteristics, rhizosphere microbial composition and metabolites of flue-cured tobacco
Provisionally accepted
- Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, China
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The extensive application of potassium (K) in tobacco has exacerbated the shortage of K mineral resources in China. Polyaspartic acid (PASP) had shown significant effects in promoting the absorption of K, increasing the utilization rate of K fertilizer, and improving yield and quality of tobacco. To clarify the potential and mechanism of PASP replacing some K fertilizers in tobacco production, field experiment was conducted with 4 different treatments: NK (traditional fertilization); RT (10% reduction of K fertilizer); NKP (traditional fertilization +4% PASP/total K2O); RKP (10% reduction of K fertilizer +4% PASP/total K2O). The reduction of K inhibited leaf growth, yield formation, K absorption, improved stem rate and decreased thickness, tensile strength, elongation rate and leaf surface density of flue-cured leaves, while had no effect on N, P, Cl content and rate of total sugar and nicotine. Comparing to NK, NKP raised the total yield by 16.7%, promoted physical properties and chemical quality optimization of flue-cured leaves. What is more, RKP compensated for the decrease in leaf yield, K content, processing utilization rate and sugar/nicotine of different parts caused by K reduction. However, K reduction and PASP application obviously influenced metabolite composition of rhizosphere soil without affecting the microbial community composition, and our results showed a relatively high correlation between differential metabolites and yield, K content, sugar/nicotine ratio, elongation rate of flue-cured tobacco. Overall, PASP provided better optimization effects on tobacco growth, yield, physical properties, chemical quality of flue-cured leaves, and PASP was beneficial for replacing K fertilizer to a certain extent, reducing the consumption of K mineral resources and environmental pollution.
Keywords: Pasp, K reduction, Tobacco, Chemical quality, Physical properties, Metabolites
Received: 25 Jul 2025; Accepted: 28 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Tian, Zhang, Chai and Wu. 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:
Guohua Chai, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, China
Xiuwen Wu, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.