Means and methods are provided to produce abiotic stress tolerant plants with improved yield based on the specific identification of a DNA methylation signature in the plants out of a population of the plants. The methods involve identification and utilization of epigenetic features of a plant with high energy use efficiency.

Rice is described that is tolerant/resistant to herbicides, for example, ACCase inhibitors, and HPPD inhibitors, or both. For ACCase inhibitors, 2 different chromosome regions act synergistically in providing resistance/tolerance to the same herbicide class. Use of the herbicide resistant/tolerant rice for weed control and methods of producing tolerant/resistant rice are also disclosed.

The present invention provides a method for promoting plant growth, which comprises treating a plant with a compound represented by the following Formula (1): ##STR00001## provided that a method for promoting plant growth which comprises treating plants with a compound corresponding to any one of the following (1) to (8) is excluded: (1) Methyl 4-(trifluoromethyl)benzo[b]thiophene-2-carboxylate, (2) Methyl 5-(trifluoromethyl)benzo[b]thiophene-2-carboxylate, (3) Methyl 6-(trifluoromethyl)benzo[b]thiophene-2-carboxylate, (4) Methyl 7-(trifluoromethyl)benzo[b]thiophene-2-carboxylate, (5) Ethyl 4-(trifluoromethyl)benzo[b]thiophene-2-carboxylate, (6) Ethyl 5-(trifluoromethyl)benzo[b]thiophene-2-carboxylate, (7) Ethyl 6-(trifluoromethyl)benzo[b]thiophene-2-carboxylate, and (8) Ethyl 7-(trifluoromethyl)benzo[b]thiophene-2-carboxylate.

Disclosed are methods of improving germination rates of plants/crops, as well as preventing or arresting water evaporation loss from targeted soil areas, which allows for improved water usage efficiency by crops, plants, grasses, vegetation, etc.

The invention is a method for enhanced growth of mycelium in culture including the key steps of seed blend choice from among corn, rice, quinoa, chia, canihua, cumin and flax seed, germinating the seed blend prior to inoculating the mycelium starter, and conducting the mushroom cultivation with ORP enhanced water and particular transmissions of sound and particularly colored light. Mushrooms grown by such a method not only mature in 13-15 days rather than 21 days, but have an enhanced nutritional and medicinal profile along with absence of unwanted organism contaminants whose unwanted overgrowth occurs during days 16-21 (or days 16-28) of typical mushroom culture.

A method for micro-ridge mixed-sowing cultivation of dryland crops includes the following steps: S1: cleaning ditches and draining away water in dryland; S2: harvesting the preceding crop, leaving the stubble, smashing the stalks of the preceding crop, and then spreading the smashed stalks on the stubble; S3: trenching the dryland to form ecological trenches; S4: flattening the standing stubble and the smashed stalks on the seedbed surface to form an underlying surface, molding seed-fertilizer-soil compounds into a ridge shape and allowing the seed-fertilizer-soil compounds to fall on the underlying surface to form ecological ridges, wherein a plurality of ecological ridges are formed between adjacent ecological trenches, an ecological depression is formed between adjacent ecological ridges, and after sowing, an irrigation is carried out, including: draining water shortly after the irrigation, without leaving a water layer in the field.

A method for micro-ridge mixed-sowing cultivation of dryland crops includes the following steps: S1: cleaning ditches and draining away water in dryland; S2: harvesting the preceding crop, leaving the stubble, smashing the stalks of the preceding crop, and then spreading the smashed stalks on the stubble; S3: trenching the dryland to form ecological trenches; S4: flattening the standing stubble and the smashed stalks on the seedbed surface to form an underlying surface, molding seed-fertilizer-soil compounds into a ridge shape and allowing the seed-fertilizer-soil compounds to fall on the underlying surface to form ecological ridges, wherein a plurality of ecological ridges are formed between adjacent ecological trenches, an ecological depression is formed between adjacent ecological ridges, and after sowing, an irrigation is carried out, including: draining water shortly after the irrigation, without leaving a water layer in the field.

The disclosure provides a method for cultivating rice on a Cd-contaminated farmland, belonging to the technical field of agricultural cultivation. The disclosure provides a method for cultivating rice with high-yield and low-Cd on a Cd-contaminated farmland, including applying organic and compound fertilizers to a Cd contaminated farmland, conducting soil preparation, mulching film and conducting punching, transplanting rice seedlings, and performing water management. The method may effectively avoid the activation of Cd caused by the drainage and drying of the paddy field, effectively improve the soil nutrient of the plough layer, increase the root density, the effective ear number and grain number per ear of the rice, and realize double effect of high-yield and low-Cd of the rice.

The disclosure provides a method for cultivating rice on a Cd-contaminated farmland, belonging to the technical field of agricultural cultivation. The disclosure provides a method for cultivating rice with high-yield and low-Cd on a Cd-contaminated farmland, including applying organic and compound fertilizers to a Cd contaminated farmland, conducting soil preparation, mulching film and conducting punching, transplanting rice seedlings, and performing water management. The method may effectively avoid the activation of Cd caused by the drainage and drying of the paddy field, effectively improve the soil nutrient of the plough layer, increase the root density, the effective ear number and grain number per ear of the rice, and realize double effect of high-yield and low-Cd of the rice.

Provided is a cultivation method for increasing yield of ratooning rice and reducing Cd content and use thereof, belonging to the technical field of agricultural planting. The cultivation method for increasing yield of ratooning rice and reducing Cd content comprises sowing seeds of ratooning rice in middle and late March of a year, conducting transplantation in middle April of the year for growth in a Cd-contaminated rice field, performing water and fertilizer management of a first season rice, harvesting the first season rice at a position between 1st and 2nd last nodes thereof and performing water and fertilizer management of a second season rice. The cultivation method provided by the present disclosure may significantly increase the yield of ratooning rice, significantly reduce the content of Cd in brown rice of ratooning rice season, and is of great significance for the safe utilization of contaminated farmland.