Belt Uniform Sowing Pattern Boosts Yield of Different Winter Wheat Cultivars in Southwest China

Ting Chen,Fengmin Li,Minjian Ren,Yonghe Zhu,Rui Dong,Jin He

doi:10.3390/agriculture11111077

Abstract

The relationship between the sowing patterns and yield performance is a valuable topic for food security. In this study, a novel belt uniform (BU) sowing pattern was reported, and a field experiment with four winter wheat cultivars was carried out over three consecutive growing seasons to compare the dry matter accumulation, harvest index (HI), grain yield and yield components under BU and line and dense (LD) sowing patterns [BU sowing with narrow (15 cm) spacing; BU sowing with wide (20 cm) spacing; LD sowing with wide (33.3 cm) row spacing; LD sowing with narrow (16.6 cm) row spacing]. Four cultivars produced a higher mean grain yield (GY), above-ground biomass (AGB) and spike number (SN) per m2 under the BU sowing patterns than the LD sowing patterns in all three growing seasons. However, yield stability under the BU sowing patterns did not increase with the improved grain yield. The HI did not change with sowing patterns, and the contribution of above-ground biomass to grain yield (84%) was more than 5-fold higher than that of HI (16%). Principal component and correlation analyses indicated that the grain yield was positively correlated with the aboveground biomass and SN, while the HI and 1000-grain weight were not correlated with grain yield. We concluded that (1) the novel BU sowing patterns achieved a higher yield potential in winter wheat but did not further improve yield stability; (2) increasing the dry matter accumulation without changing the HI drove improvements in the SN and grain number per spike, thus increasing grain yield.

Highlights

Wheat is one of the most important cereal crops grown worldwide [1] and the third most important staple crop in China
The harvest index (HI) was significantly related to the genotypes of the wheat, but its effect on the above-ground biomass (AGB) and grain yield (GY) was irregular
The HI did not change with the sowing pattern but the AGB was significantly increased under the belt uniform (BU) patterns (Figure 3)

Summary

Introduction

Wheat is one of the most important cereal crops grown worldwide [1] and the third most important staple crop in China. Most studies concentrated on the role of fertilizer schemes and planting density in yield performance [12,13], but previous studies showed new sowing patterns such as raisedbed sowing [14] and furrow sowing [15] could increase the yields of winter wheat [16,17] and other crops [18,19]. Li et al [15,20] reported a wide and narrow fu planting which could increase the winter wheat grain yield in the North China P. A new sowing method-wide-precision planting pattern (sowing width wa cm) was reported; the author proposed that this new method, combine2dofw11ith defic rigation, could maximize winter wheat production in the North China Plain [20].

Harvest and Measurement of Parameters

Statistics Analysis

Yield Performance

Relationships between Yield and Its Components

Conclusions