Crop-specific cultivation practices including crop rotation, cover cropping, and fertilisation are key measures for sustainable farming, for which soil microorganisms are important components. This study aims at identifying links between agronomic practices, potato yield and quality as well as soil microorganisms. We analysed the roles of cover crops and of the soil prokaryotic, fungal, and protistan communities in a long-term trial, differing in crop rotation, i.e. winter wheat or silage maize as pre-crop, presence and positioning of oil radish within the rotation, and fertilisation, i.e. mineral fertiliser, straw, manure, or slurry. Up to 16% higher yields were observed when oil radish grew directly before potatoes. Losses of potato quality due to infection with Rhizoctonia solani-induced diseases and common scab was 43–63% lower when wheat + oil radish was pre-crop under manure or straw + slurry fertilisation than for maize as pre-crop. This contrast was also reflected by 42% higher fungal abundance and differences in β-diversity of prokaryotes, fungi, and protists. Those amplicon sequence variants, which were found in the treatments with highest potato qualities and differed in their abundances from other treatments, belonged to Firmicutes (2.4% of the sequences) and Mortierellaceae (28%), which both comprise potential antagonists of phytopathogens. Among protists, Lobosa, especially Copromyxa, was 62% more abundant in the high potato quality plots compared to all others, suggesting that specific higher trophic organisms can improve crop performance. Our findings suggest that successful potato cultivation is related (1) to planting of oil radish before potatoes for increasing yield and (2) to fertilisation with manure or straw + slurry for enriching the microbiome with crop-beneficial taxa.

作物轮作、覆盖种植和施肥等特定作物的栽培实践是可持续农业的关键措施，而土壤微生物是可持续农业的重要组成部分。本研究旨在确定农艺实践、马铃薯产量和质量以及土壤微生物之间的联系。我们在一项长期试验中分析了覆盖作物以及土壤原核、真菌和原生生物群落的作用，不同的作物轮作（即冬小麦或青贮玉米作为前茬作物）、油萝卜在轮作中的存在和位置和施肥，即矿物肥料、秸秆、粪肥或泥浆。当油萝卜直接在土豆之前生长时，产量可提高 16%。当小麦+油萝卜在粪肥或秸秆+浆液施肥下预作时，由于感染立枯丝核菌引起的疾病和普通赤霉病而造成的马铃薯品质损失比玉米预作时低43-63%。这种对比还体现在真菌丰度高出 42%，以及原核生物、真菌和原生生物的 β 多样性差异。这些扩增子序列变异体在马铃薯品质最高的处理中发现，其丰度与其他处理不同，属于厚壁菌门（占序列的 2.4%）和被孢霉科（28%），它们都包含植物病原体的潜在拮抗剂。在原生生物中，Lobosa，尤其是Copromyxa，在马铃薯高品质地块中的丰度比所有其他地块高出 62%，这表明特定的高营养生物可以改善作物性能。我们的研究结果表明，成功的马铃薯种植与以下因素有关：（1）在马铃薯之前种植油萝卜以提高产量；（2）使用粪肥或秸秆+泥浆施肥，以丰富对作物有益的微生物群。