Abstract:
Objectives This study investigated the effects of different tillage practices and nitrogen (N) application rates on grain yield and quality of dryland wheat, aiming to propose an optimum combination of tillage method and nitrogen rate.
Methods Field experiments for winter wheat with split-plot design were conducted across 2020-2022 in Mengjin District, Yichuan County and Luoning County of Luoyang city, Henan Province, where is a typical dryland wheat production region located at the junction of the Loess Plateau and the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain. The main plots were three tillage practices, including rotary tillage (RT), plow tillage (PT), and subsoiling (SS). The subplots were four N application ratess: 0, 120, 180, and 240 kg/hm2, which refers to N0, N120, N180, and N240, respectively. At maturity stage of wheat, the grain yield were investigated, and the content,of Zn, protein and protein components in grains, as well as the processing quality of grains were measured.
Results Tillage practice, N application rate and their interaction significantly influenced wheat yield and quality in most cases. Under the same N application rate, SS treatments were recorded the highest average wheat yield and grain Zn content, which was 6.3%–25.4% and 10.7%–21.5% higher than in RT treatments, and 3.9%-11.3% and 3.7%–24.1% higher than PT treatments, and the increases were more pronounced with the increase of N application rates. Furthermore, the SS-induced yield increase was higher in 2021–2022 than that in 2020–2021. Compared to RT and PT, SS significantly increased the contents of total protein and protein components and the processing quality indices on average of the three experimental sites. With the increase of N application rates, the wheat yield, grain Zn content, the contents of total protein and protein components, and the processing quality increased initially and then stabilized under all the three tillage practices. Except for the globulin content at Yichuan in 2021–2022, N180 and N240 showed similar and significantly higher yield and quality than N120. Further more, SSN180 exhibited similar yield and quality with SSN240, except for the maximum resistance at Luoning in 2020-2021.
Conclusions Subsoiling combined with N application rate of 180 kg/hm2 is a suitable combination for high yield and nutritional and procession quality of dryland wheat production.