Seasonal dynamics of soil microecology shaping ginseng quality: a case study of 4-year-old agricultural ginseng

Ginseng is a widely used medicinal plant, and its yield and quality are mainly affected by soil quality in agricultural production, the specific role of soil properties in the quality formation of ginseng has not been systematically studied. In this study, 4-year-old agricultural ginseng and its rhizosphere soil properties at different growth periods were used as the research object, and the quality of ginseng was used as the evaluation indicator to explore the relationship between the seasonal changes of soil properties and the quality of ginseng, so as to clarify the main soil factors affecting the quality of ginseng. The results showed that the fresh weight, dry weight, and root length of ginseng in October were 3.5, 5.2, and 1.5 times higher than those in May, respectively. The decrease in soil available sulfur and invertase was the largest, with May being 2.2 and 1.6 times that of October, respectively. The structure and diversity of bacteria had undergone significant changes with the extension of cultivation time, and available silicon (r 2 =0.3419), phytase (r 2 =0.4073), arylsulfatase (r 2 =0.6061), and nitrate reductase (r 2 =0.5530) were the principal predictors of these changes. Co-occurrence network showed that the niche dominance of Proteobacteria and Actinobacteriota was gradually replaced by Firmicutes, Chloroflex and Planctomycetota . Finally, the specific soil factors (available boron, invertase, and Solirubrobacter ) played a sustained role in the formation of ginseng quality. The research results can help guide the improvement of soil microecology and provide research directions for verifying the reliability of these results in the future.