Comprehensive quantitative evaluation and mechanism analysis of influencing factors on yield and quality of cultivated Gastrodia elata

Abstract Gastrodia elata (G. elata) is a dual-purpose herb for medicine and food. Wild resources are depleted, and there is a significant decrease in yield or quality when they are cultivated artificially. However, what factors led to the decline is still unclear. In this study, based on comprehensive data under multiple production regions, hierarchical partitioning and partial least squares path modeling were used for the first time to quantitatively evaluate the dominant influencing factors and mechanism for the yield and quality of cultivated G. elata. The results showed that Armillaria relative abundance, soil available potassium and temperature seasonality were the key factors. Their independent effects were 74.14%, 24.78%, and 20.36% on yield, and 36.83%, 25.63%, and 21.30% on quality, respectively. Plant subspecies directly determined the yield and quality (P < 0.01). Soil physical properties affected chemical properties, which in turn affected biological properties and ultimately yields (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, soil physical properties affected quality by influencing soil chemical properties (P < 0.01). Our study contributes novel insight to optimize cultivation strategies of G. elata, providing a more comprehensive knowledge on improving the yield and quality of G. elata and achieving large-scale greenhouse cultivation.