Minghua Li

Author    Correspondence author
Biological Evidence, 2026, Vol. 16, No.   
Received: 01 Jan., 1970    Accepted: 01 Jan., 1970    Published: 29 Jun., 2026

With the development of the winter vegetable industry in southern China, climatic factors such as low temperature, cold waves, and frost have become major environmental stresses limiting stable and high-yield radish production. This study focuses on the winter agricultural climate characteristics of southern China and their effects on radish cultivation. It explains the morphological, physiological, and molecular biological basis of cold tolerance in radish and summarizes the mechanisms of osmotic adjustment, antioxidant defense systems, plant hormone regulation, and low-temperature-responsive gene networks involved in cold tolerance formation. At the same time, the study reviews the diversity of radish germplasm resources in China, local cold-tolerant varieties, advances in conventional breeding techniques, and progress in molecular breeding research. The advantages of representative cold-tolerant varieties in terms of yield, quality, and environmental adaptability are also analyzed. Combined with key cultivation practices, including optimization of sowing time, water and fertilizer management, protected cultivation, and integrated pest and disease control, this paper discusses efficient winter radish production systems and typical regional application cases. The coordinated application of cold-tolerant variety breeding and regional cultivation technologies is an important approach to improving the stability and economic benefits of winter radish production in southern China. In the future, greater efforts should be made to integrate genomics with precision breeding technologies, improve cold-tolerance evaluation systems, and promote the application of smart agriculture technologies, providing both theoretical support and technical guidance for the development of efficient, environmentally friendly, and sustainable winter vegetable production systems.