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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 76(9)

Safe and optimal transplanting windows for high yield of potato in China

Yang Li https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9782-1678 A , Jing Wang B C * , Peijuan Wang A * , Renwei Chen B , Rui Bai D , Qi Hu B C and Hong Yin E
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather Meteorological Science and Technology, Shenyang Institute of Agricultural and Ecological Meteorology, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing 100081, China.

B College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.

C Key Ecology and Environment Experimental Station of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs for Field Scientific Observation in Wuchuan, Hohhot 011700, China.

D Hainan Climate Center, Key Laboratory of South China Sea Meteorological Disaster Prevention and Mitigation of Hainan Province, Haikou 570203, China.

E National Climate Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China.

* Correspondence to: wangj@cau.edu.cn, wangpj@cma.gov.cn

Handling Editor: Davide Cammarano

Crop & Pasture Science 76, CP25015 https://doi.org/10.1071/CP25015
Submitted: 16 January 2025  Accepted: 7 August 2025  Published: 29 August 2025

© 2025 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing

Abstract

Context

Although China ranks first globally in planting area and total production of potato, the suboptimal transplanting date is one of the limiting factors for high yield of potato.

Aims

This study aimed to determine the safe transplanting window (SPW) and optimal transplanting window (OPW) across China’s potato planting regions.

Methods

The APSIM-Potato model was used to simulate potato yields under different transplanting dates in China. The SPW and OPW were defined as the periods during which potato yield surpassed the medium and the 90th percentile of all simulated yields respectively, during 1961–2023.

Key results

The 30°N line could be regarded as the boundary for determining whether potato can be transplanted at certain dates. The OPWs of potato in the North Single planting region, Central Double planting region, Southwest Mixed planting region, and South Winter planting region were early to late May, late April to late May, late July to late August, and early April to middle May respectively. Within the OPWs, potato yields were 8–136% higher than those under the conventional transplanting dates.

Conclusions

The decrease in latitude leads to an advancement and widening of SPW and OPW of potato. The southern China had a greater potential for increasing potato yields through selecting the optimal transplanting date, than did northern China.

Implications

These results not only help increase high stability of potato yield in China, but also provide theoretical reference for other regions or crops in optimizing planting dates in the context of climate change.

Keywords: APSIM-potato, climate change, cropping system, meteorological factor, potato planting region, potential yield, rainfed yield, transplanting window.

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