Effect of planting density and N rate on the relationship of individual winter wheat and its plant population in furrow and ridge film mulching planting system

A field experiment was conducted to study the effects of planting density and N rate on relationships of winter wheat individual and its plant population under ridge film mulch planting system with the binary quadric orthogonal rotational combination design. The tested cultivar was Xiaoyan22. The results showed that the basic seedling, tiller number before winter, total tiller number and the population size all increased as planting density increased in ridge film mulching planting. High-density with low N rate favored tiller before winter, while low-density with high N rate promoted spring tillers. Rational fertilization could increase of the number of head per unit area and the rate of heading. Low density was good for the yield in individual plant. Rational increase of individual plant can compensate the yield lose owing to heads deficits per unit of lower density under the ridge planting system. Both planting density and N fertilizer had pronounced effects on the grain yield under the experiment condition with the effect of N fertilizer more significant. The desirable yield would be obtained with the application of nitrogen N 202-227 kg/ha and seeding rate 98-127 kg/ha. The population and spike number under conventional cultivation was higher than that under ridge furrow film, but yield of individual plant was lower. Under the experiment condition, we recommended applying N rate 222.71 kg/ha and planting density 101.75 kg/ha because of the highest yield obtained.