Severe continuous cropping obstacles exist in ginseng cultivation. In order to assess these obstacles, a "sandwich" ginseng root tissue sensor was developed for the kinetic determination of five nitrogen nutrients. The results showed that the sensing parameters of the sensor reached an ultrasensitive level (limit of detection up to 5.451 × 10-24 mol/L) for the five nitrogen nutrients, and exhibited good stability and reproducibility. In the order of two-, four-, and six-year-old ginseng plants, the sensitivity to inorganic nitrogen nutrients (sodium nitrate and urea) showed an upward trend following an initial decline (the interconnected allosteric constant Ka values acted as the parameter). The fluctuations in sensor sensitivity to organic nitrogen nutrients, specifically nucleotides (disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate), were relatively small. The sensor sensitivity of two-, four-, and six-year-old ginseng plants to sodium glutamate was 9.277 × 10-19 mol/L, 6.980 × 10-21 mol/L, and 5.451 × 10-24 mol/L, respectively. Based on the survival rate of the seedlings and mortality rate of the ginseng in each age group, a Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium analysis was carried out. The results showed that the sensing ability of the root system to sodium glutamate may be an important factor affecting its survival under continuous cropping obstacles with increasing age.
Keywords: continuous cropping; electrochemical sensor; ginseng; nitrogen nutrients; root meristem.