Globally, orchard soils are facing multiple severe health issues. However, different countries and regions have adopted their own soil classification standards, making many studies only useful for improving soil health in local orchards but not widely applicable to other regions. This fragmentation highlights the urgent need for internationally comparable approaches to orchard soil health assessment. Furthermore, there are currently no unified standards for screening orchard soil health indicators or establishing comprehensive evaluation indices. Many proposed orchard soil health assessment frameworks lack practical applicability. This review introduces and compares several soil health assessment methods, critically analyzes their limitations, and explores directions for improvement in their application to orchards. Additionally, it addresses the primary challenges, currently and in the future, facing orchard soil health—climate change and emerging contaminants. This review also evaluates current orchard soil health management practices, focusing on their advantages and limitations. Finally, this paper offers recommendations for data acquisition and analysis in future orchard soil health assessment frameworks and encourages the establishment of a Decision-Making Platform for Soil Health with Cross-Border Cooperation and Feedback, thereby promoting a more globally consistent perspective on orchard soil health.

Root pruning can promote the transplanting of young green plants, but the overall impact of pruning on root growth, morphology, and physiological functions remains unclear. This study integrated transcriptomics and physiological analyses to elucidate the effects of root pruning on blueberry growth. Appropriate pruning (CT4) significantly promoted plant growth, with above-ground biomass and leaf biomass significantly increasing compared to the control group within 42 days. Photosynthesis temporarily decreased at 7 days but recovered at 21 and 42 days. Transcriptomics analysis showed that the cellulose metabolism pathway was rapidly activated and influenced multiple key genes in the starch metabolism pathway. Importantly, transcription factors associated with vascular development were also significantly increased at 7, 21, and 42 days after root pruning, indicating their role in regulating vascular differentiation. Enhanced aboveground growth was positively correlated with the expression of photosynthesis-related genes, and the transport of photosynthetic products via vascular tissues provided a carbon source for root development. Thus, root development is closely related to leaf photosynthesis, and changes in gene expression associated with vascular tissue development directly influence root development, ultimately ensuring coordinated growth between aboveground and belowground parts. These findings provide a theoretical basis for optimizing root pruning strategies to enhance blueberry growth and yield.

With growing global recognition of the nutritional value of blueberries, their cultivation has expanded significantly across various regions. However, gray mold disease, caused by Botrytis cinerea, remains a major challenge in postharvest storage and transportation. In this study, two strains—Trichoderma asperellum BBR–A and B. cinerea BC7–1—were isolated and identified from the blueberry rhizosphere and diseased leaves. Co-culture assays demonstrated that BBR–A exhibits potent antagonistic activity, rapidly suppressing the growth of the pathogen BC7–1 through mycoparasitic behaviors, including hyphal coiling, penetration, and degradation. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that upon interaction with BC7–1, BBR–A undergoes extensive reprogramming of carbon metabolism, with coordinated upregulation of genes encoding degradative enzymes, transporters, and stress-related proteins. Congo red staining and enzymatic activity assays further confirmed the enhanced secretion of extracellular enzymes and the increased cell wall-degrading capacity of BBR–A. On detached blueberry leaves, seedlings, and fruits, BBR–A treatment significantly delayed lesion expansion and reduced disease severity. Metabolomic profiling further demonstrated that BBR–A induces the marked accumulation of phenolic compounds, polyamines, and other antioxidant- and immunity-related metabolites in blueberry leaves, thereby maintaining host redox homeostasis and enhancing stress resilience. Collectively, these findings indicate that T. asperellum BBR–A effectively suppresses B. cinerea through multiple mechanisms, including antagonism, mycoparasitism, metabolic regulation, and the induction of plant defense responses, highlighting its strong potential for development as a biocontrol agent against blueberry gray mold.