Zanthoxylum bungeanum, a small deciduous tree or shrub belonging to the genus Zanthoxylum in the family Rutaceae, exhibits early yield, wide use, high value, and strong adaptability (Luo et al. 2022; Liang et al. 2023; Lu et al. 2020). It is commonly utilized in food processing and is known for its anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anti-cancer, and other medicinal properties. However, improper management and continuous cropping in certain areas have led to the accumulation of allelopathic and autotoxic substances, resulting in a decline in soil quality and an imbalance in the microbial flora. Consequently, the yield and quality of Zanthoxylum bungeanum have decreased, and the survival rate of seedlings after replanting is low. This issue of continuous cropping has significantly hindered the robust growth of the Zanthoxylum bungeanum industry. Therefore, finding effective solutions to alleviate obstacles related to continuous land cropping has become an urgent industrial concern.
In recent years, there has been widespread use of microbial remediation agents for soil remediation. Bio-organic fertilizer, which is rich in organic and inorganic nutrients, consists of beneficial microbial flora and organic fertilizer. It contains a significant amount of organic matter components. The organic fertilizer can effectively interact with microorganisms, leading to mutual benefits (Wu et al. 2016). Microbial fertilizer, on the other hand, is abundant in Pseudomonas, rhizobia, indole acetic acid, and other beneficial microorganisms. These microorganisms can enhance the release and absorption of insoluble elements like P and K in the soil (Liu et al. 2024). Therefore, combining these two types of fertilizers can better harness the synergistic effects of organic matter and beneficial microorganisms, ultimately addressing the issue of continuous cropping. Due to the numerous advantages of biofertilizers, extensive research has been conducted in this field. For instance, bioorganic fertilizers have been successfully used in various crops such as peas and oats (Jannoura et al. 2014), Panax notoginseng (Shi et al. 2022), grapes (Liu et al. 2024), apples (Gu et al. 2024), and walnuts (Du et al. 2022) due to their high efficiency, fast results, and cost-effectiveness. Microbial fertilizers, which contain a plethora of beneficial microorganisms, are primarily employed for biological control of plant and soil diseases. They have proven effective in mitigating postharvest diseases of fruits and vegetables (Huang et al. 2021) as well as disease problems in cotton (Liu et al. 2023), rice (Zhang et al. 2021), and apple (Duan et al. 2022). Consequently, it is evident that the appropriate application of organic and bacterial fertilizers can alleviate the issue of continuous cropping to varying degrees.
Currently, research on Zanthoxylum bungeanum primarily focuses on analyzing its chemical components and exploring its medical value (Wang et al. 2021; Zeng et al. 2018). Other areas of research include genetic characteristics and habitat analysis (Xiang et al. 2016), drought tolerance (Li et al. 2020; Su et al. 2023), biodiversity of endophytic fungi (Li et al. 2016), allelopathy (Ma et al. 2019; Cao et al. 2022), comparison of physiology and transcriptomics of different varieties (Tian et al. 2021), and soil physical and chemical properties (Liu et al. 2021). In the initial phase, we utilized bio-organic fertilizer and microbial bacterial fertilizer to treat soil that had been continuously cropped. By examining the growth and photosynthetic characteristics of replanted Zanthoxylum bungeanum, I investigated the promoting effect and photosynthetic mechanism of a mixture of biofertilizers on the growth of continuously cropped Zanthoxylum bungeanum (Zhang et al. 2021). However, the physiological and biochemical characteristics of replanted Zanthoxylum bungeanum and the impact of soil allelochemicals are still not fully understood. Hence, this study employs the principal component analysis method to assess the effects of different ratios of bio-organic fertilizers and microbial fertilizers on the physiology and biochemistry of replanted Zanthoxylum bungeanum seedlings, as well as soil phenolic acids. The aim is to uncover the physiological effects of applying a mixture of biofertilizers to replanted Zanthoxylum bungeanum, and to provide a theoretical foundation for understanding the characteristics and mitigation mechanism of soil allelopathic substances.