Plant, Soil and Environment

ISSN 1214-1178 (Print)
ISSN 1805-9368 (On-line)

An international open access peer-reviewed journal published by the Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences and financed by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic Published since 1955 (by 2002 under the title Rostlinná výroba)

The journal is administered by an international Editorial Board
Editor-in-Chief: prof. Ing. Václav Vaněk, CSc.
Co-editors: Ing. Jan Haberle, CSc., Mgr. Jan Lipavský, CSc., prof. Ing. Daniela Pavlíková, CSc., prof. Ing. Pavel Tlustoš, CSc., dr. h. c.
Executive Editor: Mgr. Kateřina Součková
The journal is published monthly

Aims & Scope

experimental biology, agronomy, natural resources, and the environment; plant development, growth and productivity, breeding and seed production, growing of crops and their quality, soil care, conservation and productivity; agriculture and environment interactions from the perspective of sustainable development. Articles are published in English.

Types of published articles: original scientific papers, information, review studies, communications

Current issue

Enhancing rice yield, quality, and resource utilisation with slow-release fertiliser in alternate wetting and drying irrigationOriginal Paper

Keji Hua, Peng Yang, Jieyu Zhou, Wei Liao, Jun He, Junlin Zheng, Chi Tang, Yuqin Li, Baolong Zhang

Plant Soil Environ., 2024, 70(5):253-262 | DOI: 10.17221/450/2023-PSE

Partial slow-release fertiliser substitution for urea combined with water-saving irrigation may synergistically improve rice yield, quality, water, and nitrogen (N) utilisation. A field experiment to evaluate different combinations of irrigation regimes: alternate wetting and drying irrigation (AWD) and flooding irrigation (FI), and N strategies: N0 (no N fertiliser); N1 (100% conventional fertiliser); N2 (100% SCF – sulphur-coated fertiliser); N3 (70% SCF + 30% urea), and N4 (50% SCF + 50% urea) on efficient rice production. Results indicated that higher substitution rates of SCF (N2 and N3) increased total N and ammonia N in surface water,...

Biochar addition enhances annual carbon stocks and ecosystem carbon sink intensity in saline soils of the Hetao Irrigation District, Inner MongoliaOriginal Paper

Ruxin Zhang, Zhongyi Qu, Wei Yang, Liping Wang, Dongliang Zhang, Lu Liu, Junjie Li, Zhimin Zhang

Plant Soil Environ., 2024, 70(5):263-275 | DOI: 10.17221/121/2023-PSE

Biochar has demonstrated potential for stabilising high yields and sequestering carbon in dryland farmland, but it is unclear whether biochar affects the carbon sequestration capacity and carbon balance of annual farmland ecosystems. For this purpose, we conducted a plot control trial in salinised farmland in 2019–2021, where we set three treatments, control, and two biochar rates, 0 (CK), 15 (B15), and 30 t/ha (B30). The results showed that biochar application decreased soil organic carbon stocks in the early part of the experiment (first freeze and freeze period); these increased in the later part, and overall, the biochar treatments increased...

Fertilisation and environmental factors affect the yield and quality of alfalfa in ChinaOriginal Paper

Shun Li, Zongqing Liu

Plant Soil Environ., 2024, 70(5):276-286 | DOI: 10.17221/457/2023-PSE

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is a superior-quality perennial legume forage crop cultivated in China. However, fertiliser applications and the environmental factors affecting alfalfa yield and quality have not been well documented. In this study, we conducted a meta-analysis using a dataset from 105 studies published between 2003 and 2023 to explore the effects of fertiliser application and environmental factors on the yield and quality of alfalfa. The results showed that compared to the non-fertiliser control levels, fertiliser application increased alfalfa yield by 24.61% and improved the quality of alfalfa by increasing crude protein by 11.63%...

The effect of various factors (light, temperature, salt, and drought) on germination of Bromus sterilis L.Original Paper

Kateřina Hamouzová, Jaromír Šuk, Soham Bhattacharya, Jakub Mikulka, Veronika Valičková, Michaela Kolářová, Josef Soukup

Plant Soil Environ., 2024, 70(5):287-295 | DOI: 10.17221/21/2024-PSE

Bromus sterilis L. (barren brome) is one of the most economically important noxious grass weeds in the winter cereal fields of Europe. Its ecological behaviour in this agro-climatic region should be assessed for effective weed control strategies. The present study was conducted to assess the dormancy and germination response of the B. sterilis population from the Czech Republic under thermal, light, and stress conditions. The dormancy loss experiment revealed that seeds exposed to the light regime showed a remarkably lower percentage of germination, and under alternating temperatures of 10/20 °C in dark conditions, rapid loss of primary...

Effect of seed weight and biostimulant seed treatment on establishment, growth and yield parameters of winter oilseed rapeOriginal Paper

David Bečka, Lucie Bečková, Matěj Satranský, Kateřina Pazderů

Plant Soil Environ., 2024, 70(5):296-304 | DOI: 10.17221/98/2024-PSE

This study evaluated the effect of seed weight and seed treatment on yield and growth parameters in a three-year field trial. Seed weight treatments were tested in three levels of thousand seed weight (TSW): low 4.28 g, medium 5.00 g and high 5.69 g, with and without a biostimulant seed treatment of Lumibio Kelta. Although statistically significant differences were not found in all experimental years, the three-year results showed that sowing seeds with higher seed weight increased the initial and final stand counts, root length, seed yield and oil content. The final stand at harvest time averaged over the three years ranged from 23.0 (low TSW) to...

Effects of red-blue light spectrum on growth, yield, and photo-synthetic efficiency of lettuce in a uniformly illumination environmentOriginal Paper

Shipeng Luo, Jun Zou, Mingming Shi, Senmao Lin, Dawei Wang, Wenbin Liu, Yan Shen, Xiaotao Ding, Yuping Jiang

Plant Soil Environ., 2024, 70(5):305-316 | DOI: 10.17221/480/2023-PSE

This study comprehensively investigates the impact of varying red-to-blue light ratios on the growth of Spanish lettuce. The research considers various factors such as growth morphology, photosynthetic parameters, and chlorophyll fluorescence. Lettuce was cultivated in an environment with a photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) of 200 ± 20 μmol/m²/s and a photoperiod of 16 h per day. The experiment incorporated eight distinct light treatment methodologies, with the red-to-blue light ratios ranging from 2 : 8 (R2B8) to 9 : 1 (R9B1). The data implies that during the initial 20 days of growth, groups exposed...