To realize sustainability in agricultural production, structure design and performance testing of biomass-based nursery trays was carried out in this study. Starting from meeting the agronomic requirements of rice seedling raising and mechanical transplanting, the method of combining theoretical analysis with experimental verification was used to clarify the design ideas and structural design basis of the biomass-based nursery tray. Key structural dimension parameters, such as the lateral dimensions of the seedling tray, the longitudinal size of the nursery tray, and the depth of the pothole bowl, were optimized. Meanwhile, developed biomass-based nursery trays and plastic flat nursery trays were used as seedling carriers, and a non-woven fabric and a plastic film were used as isolation materials for seeding trials. The experiment consisted of three treatments: a non-woven fabric under plastic flat nursery trays (CK), a non-woven fabric under biomass-based nursery trays (CK1), and a plastic film under biomass-based nursery trays (CK2). Comparative analysis of the seedling emergence rate, seedling quality, and yield under different nursery methods was carried out in the experiment. The results showed that the seedling emergence rate of CK1 and CK2 increased by 9.1% and 9.5%, respectively, compared with the traditional seedling raising method (CK). In terms of seedling quality, the overall quality of the seedlings cultivated with biomass-based nursery trays improved, and the improvement in traits was particularly obvious in the group of seedlings with a plastic film as isolation materials (CK2), with final results showing a 5.8% increase in yield. The results of this study can provide a theoretical basis for establishing a rice cultivation technology system suitable for China’s national conditions, and can also provide technical support for increasing the use of biomass-based nursery trays to achieve the sustainable development of agriculture.

In order to find out the optimized technological parameters of rice straw bowl tray, the forming test was carried out with the slurry made of rice straw as the main raw material and the pneumatic molding machine as the equipment. The orthogonal rotational combination test of ternary quadratic regression and response surface analysis method were used to study the effect of 3 molding factors (vacuum degree, pressure preservation time and adsorption time) on 3 molding technical indices (bowl hole molding rate, relaxation density and rupture-resisting strength). Design-Expert data analysis software was used to establish regression models between rice straw bowl tray molding factors and molding properties so as to obtain optimal technological parameters, which were as follows: vacuum degree: -0.09 MPa; holding time: 14 s; adsorption time: 5 s. At the moment, theoretical bowl hole molding rate was 98.62%, relaxation density was 5.8 g/cm3 and rupture-resisting strength was 27.48 N, the experimental results show that the theoretical analysis is correct, and the model fitting is better. This study can provide a theoretical basis for optimization of pneumatic molding technological of rice straw bowl tray and lay a foundation for realizing industrialized production of biomass seeding tray.