# Experimental Study of Vegetative Properties in
## 4 Conclusions  
This study compared and analyzed the effects of ZL and BC on seed GI, plant height, and coverage rate, revealing the seed germination and plant growth patterns of ZL-BC-improved substrate. The vegetation of each improved substrate was also evaluated through scoring. The main conclusions are as follows:  
1. The seed germination effect index of the modified substrate was highest at 6% ZL content, and the GP was 68.13%, showing a trend of initially increasing and then decreasing with higher ZL content. With the increase in BC content, the decreasing trend was not obvious when the content was below 3%, and the average GP before 3% was 56.64%. Both ZL and BC had an effect on substrate pH, increasing by \(-\)0.11 and 0.4 on average, respectively; the effect of BC was more significant, and the germination of each substrate was negatively correlated with pH.
2. The plant height was highest when the ZL content was 6%, followed by 3%. Additionally, plant height showed certain advantages with BC contents of 0% or 1%. The highest average plant height was observed when the BC content was 1% and ZL content was 6%; the average plant heights were 21.12 cm and 19.38 cm, respectively. As for the coverage rate, it decreased with increasing BC content. ZL contents of 3% and 6% can enhance the coverage rate, being 1.29% and 2.42% higher than the average, but excessively high ZL content inhibits plant formation.
3. In the comprehensive evaluation, ZL primarily influenced the GI of C.d., whereas BC had a more pronounced impact on the GP, GE, plant height, and coverage rate. When testing the ZL-BC-modified substrate for C.d., 17 out of 26 substrates scored above 80, resulting in good overall vegetative properties, with dominant ratios observed at 6% ZL and 0% BC.  
Conceptualization, H.X. and X.Z.; methodology, H.X. and X.Z.; formal analysis, Y.S., K.H. and L.G.; data curation, Y.S., Z.L. and L.G.; writing--review and editing, Y.S. and X.Z.; funding acquisition, H.X. and X.Z. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
Financial support for this research came from the Joint Funds of the National Nature Science Foundation of China (U22A20232), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52108315 and  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \begin{tabular}{c} **Substrate** \\ **Number (\#)** \\ \end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}{c} **Coverage** \\ **Rate (\%)** \\ \end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}{c} **Score (A)** \\ **Height (cm)** \\ \end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}{c} **Growth** \\ **Score (B)** \\ \end{tabular} & \
\begin{tabular}{c} **Score (C)** \\ **GP (\%)** \\ \end{tabular} &
\begin{tabular}{c} **Comprehensive** \\ **Score** \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline  
\hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 5: _Cont._52078195), the Open Project Funding of the Key Laboratory of Intelligent Health Perception and Ecological Restoration of Rivers and Lakes, Ministry of Education, Hubei University of Technology (HGKFZP003), and the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Hubei University of Technology (BSQD2020052).  
**Data Availability Statement:** The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors on request.  
**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.