Effect of tillage and preceding crops on yield, water and fertilizer use efficiency of winter wheat

Abstract

【Objective】 Winter wheat in Northern China is often rotated with other crops which are expected to have a legacy effect. This paper aims to study the effect of different tillage and preceding crops on soil nutrients, yield and water use efficiency of the winter wheat. 【Method】 The field experiment consisted of a rotary tillage (RT) and a no-tillage (NT). The preceding crops for each tillage were corn (MW) or soybean (SW). During the experiment, we measured the changes in soil nutrients, soil water content, water and fertilizer use efficiency, and yield of the wheat. 【Result】 For the same preceding crop, non-tillage increased soil water content compared to rotary tillage; under the same tillage, soil water content with maize as the preceding crop was higher than that with soybean as the preceding crop. In all treatments, soil nutrients decreased with soil depth. In the 0-50 cm soil layer, NTSW increased soil organic carbon, soil total nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen by 4.14%-13.54%, 35.51%-54.44% and 55.75%-112%, respectively, compared to the RTMW. RTMW had the highest available phosphorus and potassium in the 10-50 cm soil layer. The RTSW had the highest ammonium nitrogen in the 0-50 cm soil layer, 13.39%-20.64% more than that in the RTMW. The winter wheat in NTSW had the highest spike numbers, spikelet numbers, thousand-grain weight; and its grain yield was 16.62% higher than that of RTMW. The NTSW had the highest water use efficiency, 8.67% more than that of RTMW. The NTSW had the highest nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium use efficiency. 【Conclusion】 The NTSW facilitated nutrient accumulation in the winter wheat field. It had the highest water and fertilizer use efficiency and increased grain yields the most as a result.

Keywords

• rotary tillage
• no-tillage
• preceding crop
• soil nutrient
• water and fertilizer use efficiency
• crop yield