Maize production in Fuxin City, Liaoning Province, China, is threatened by northern corn leaf blight (NCLB) and Fusarium stalk rot, with straw return under conservation tillage exacerbating the NCLB severity by 20% in local fields. This study evaluated the efficacy of combining difenoconazole, a commonly used fungicide, with a Trichoderma bioagent for disease control in straw-incorporated soils. Field trials in Fuxin showed that applying 300 g/ha difenoconazole with 1.5 L/ha Trichoderma fermentate achieved superior results: a 72.4% reduction in the NCLB disease index and a stalk rot incidence of only 0.61%. These outcomes significantly outperformed single-component treatments like difenoconazole alone (56.2% NCLB suppression) or other fungicides (e.g., carbendazim, triadimefon). The combined treatment also outperformed the single treatments with biocontrol agent (67.1% NCLB inhibition). The results highlight the synergistic potential of integrating chemical and biological agents to manage residue-borne diseases, offering a practical strategy for sustainable disease control in conservation agriculture systems with straw return in Liaoning, China.

A comprehensive two-year investigation (2024–2025) was conducted across Northeast China’s crucial grain production base to assess the status of maize diseases. Field surveys spanning three provinces and Inner Mongolia revealed a significant shift in the regional disease profile, with diagnosis performed by experienced personnel based on characteristic field symptoms. The results demonstrated that maize white spot (MWS) has emerged as a severe new threat, recording remarkably high disease severity indices exceeding 80 at multiple locations (e.g., LDD25-1: 86.83). Concurrently, gray leaf spot (GLS) was confirmed as the most prevalent foliar disease, forming stable areas of high severity in the eastern mountainous regions where its disease indices consistently surpassed 60 (e.g., LFS25-1: 65.26), thereby exceeding the impact of northern corn leaf blight. In contrast, stalk rot (SR) maintained a low field incidence rate below 10%, while other diseases such as Curvularia leaf spot and maize eyespot were only observed locally or were absent during the 2025 survey period. These findings underscore the emergence of MWS as a critical threat and affirm the dominant status of GLS, offering a scientific foundation for prioritizing disease management strategies in the region.

Sorghum dwarfing genes (Dw1, Dw2, Dw3) are crucial determinants of plant architecture and yield potential; however, their genetic characteristics and distribution patterns in Chinese sorghum landraces remain poorly understood. This study systematically analyzed their allelic distribution across 241 Chinese landrace accessions. Through rigorous PCR-based genotyping and detailed phenotypic characterization, we identified that only approximately 7% of the surveyed landraces carried natural dwarfing alleles, with mutations in the dw3 locus being the most frequently observed. Plant height statistics and genotyping of F2 plants, whose parents were 8R252 (tall accession) and 8R387 (dwarf accession), demonstrated that dw3 exerted the most pronounced effect on plant height reduction. Importantly, we discovered significant epistatic effects in double-recessive combinations, with the dw1dw3 genotype showing particularly strong height reduction. These findings substantially advance our understanding of the genetic architecture underlying sorghum plant height variation and provide a robust scientific foundation for molecular breeding strategies aimed at optimizing lodging resistance and mechanical harvestability in sorghum improvement programs.