Mulching practices have been used to improve peach growth and production across the globe. However, the impact of mulching on the physiochemical properties and soil characteristics of orchards remains largely unknown. This study aimed to decipher the impacts of various mulching patterns on the soil environment and the quality of Prunus persica fruit in “Zijinhuangcui”. Three treatments were set up, which included black ground fabric mulch (BF) and two living grass mulch treatments (HV: hairy vetch and RG: ryegrass). The results showed that different mulching treatments have different effects on soil, plant growth, and fruit quality. Living grass mulch treatments, especially the HV treatment, significantly improved soil nutrients by enhancing nitrogen-related indicators. Of note, the BF treatment had higher total phosphorus and available phosphorus contents than the HV and RG treatments. The HV treatment had the highest relative abundance of Proteobacteria (33.49%), which is associated with symbiotic nitrogen fixation, followed by RG (25.62%), and BF (22.38%) at the young fruit stage. Similarly, the abundance of Terrimonas, which has a unique nitrogen fixation system at the genus level, was significantly higher in the living grass mulch (HV, 1.30–3.13% and RG, 2.27–4.24%) than in the BF treatment. Living grass mulch also promoted tree growth, increased fruit sugar content, sugar-related components, and sugar-acid ratio, and reduced the acid content. Collectively, the findings of this study show that living grass mulch can promote tree growth and improve fruit quality by improving soil fertility, bacterial diversity, and richness.

The present study scrutinized the influence of foliar application of methyl jasmonate on the physiochemical characteristics and antioxidant enzymes of two grapevine rootstocks, ‘SO4’ (high drought tolerance) and ‘101-14’ (low drought tolerance), under drought conditions. The grapevine seedlings were sprayed with methyl jasmonate at 100 µM at 3-day intervals throughout the 28-day drought stress period. The results showed that treating both rootstocks with methyl jasmonate greatly minimized the adverse effects of reactive oxygen species caused by drought. Specifically, methyl jasmonate substantially reduced levels of malondialdehyde, hydrogen peroxide, and ion leakage while increasing photosynthetic pigment levels, soluble carbohydrates, proline, protein, and total phenols content. Additionally, applying methyl jasmonate improved the action of antioxidant enzymes like superoxide dismutase, ascorbate peroxidase, and catalase. This made the membranes of leaves more solid during drought conditions. Methyl jasmonate treatment reduced oxidative damage and improved mineral element (P, K, Mg, Ca, Fe, and Zn) accumulation in the green leaves of treated plants as opposed to the drought-untreated plants. These results were more noticeable in ‘SO4’ compared to ‘101-14’ rootstocks. Based on these results, applying methyl jasmonate at 100 µM to the leaves of grapevines may be considered a novel strategy for mitigating water scarcity in the grapevine production system.

Salinity is a long-standing global environmental stressor of terrestrial agroecosystems, with important implications for viticulture sustainability, especially in arid and semi-arid environments. Salt-induced physiological and biochemical disruptions to grapevines undermine yield and long-term vineyard sustainability. This review aims to integrate physiological, molecular, and omics-based insights to elucidate how grapevine rootstocks confer salinity tolerance and to identify future breeding directions for sustainable viticulture. This review critically assesses the ecological and molecular processes underlying salt stress adaptation in grapevine (Vitis spp.) rootstocks, with an emphasis on their contribution to modulating scion performance under saline conditions. Core adaptive mechanisms include morphological plasticity, ion compartmentalization, hormonal regulation, antioxidant defense, and activation of responsive genes to stress. Particular emphasis is given to recent integrative biotechnological developments—including transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and genomics—that reveal the intricate signaling and regulatory networks enabling rootstock-mediated tolerance. By integrating advances across eco-physiological, agronomic, and molecular realms, this review identifies rootstock selection as a promising strategy for bolstering resilience in grapevine production systems confronted by salinization, a phenomenon increasingly exacerbated by anthropogenic land use and climate change. The research highlights the value of stress ecology and adaptive root system strategies for alleviating the environmental consequences of soil salinity for perennial crop systems.

Abiotic stresses are the major factors limiting grape production in the world. They significantly impede grape growth and production. However, during the grape production stage, plant growth regulators play a crucial role in regulating grape developmental progress, especially methyl jasmonate (MeJA). The exogenous MeJA participates in different crop production, gene expression, signaling transduction, natural defense, stress resistance, hormone balance, osmotic regulation, cellular metabolic process, and thermostatic regulation. Grape crop resilience to different abiotic and biotic stresses was overall fascinated by exogenous applications of MeJA. Therefore, in this review, we focus on the MeJA hormone in abiotic stress relief and discovery, application, significance, occurrence, growth via development, stress responses, interaction, molecular modulation, and biological signaling in the grape. Exogenous MeJA in abiotic stress responses explained the physiological change and the signaling pathway has emerged as one of the key plant metabolic processes vs. photosynthetic productivity, playing a substantial role in gene expression, quality parameters, fruit attribution, protein differentiation, cellular programming, and reprogramming, and tolerance mechanism. MeJA hormone has been discovered after a broader study as abiotic stress-responsive methyl jasmonate/Jasmonic acid, which could be a pivotal target not only for grape production but also for other crops.