The Latest High-Quality, High-Yield Cultivation and Planting Techniques for Winter Wheat

Selecting Superior Varieties

Wheat grain quality and yield traits are controlled both by the genetic makeup of the variety and by cultivation measures. Examining their relationship: genetics is the internal cause, while cultivation measures are the external cause. Therefore, selecting superior varieties is the most economical and most effective means of achieving high quality and high yield in winter wheat. Our institute started breeding for high quality and high yield in wheat early on. Varieties selected in the early period, such as Yannong 15, and those selected more recently, such as Yanyou 361 and Yan 2801, not only have the potential for a yield of 600 kg per mu, but their quality indicators also meet the national standard for high-quality wheat.

Fine Tillage and Harrowing, Building Up Soil Fertility

Choose wheat fields with a fertility level of over 500 kg per mu, with topsoil organic matter above 1.2%, total nitrogen above 0.09%, hydrolyzable nitrogen at 70 ppm, available phosphorus at 25 ppm, and available potassium at 90 ppm. Standards for applying base fertilizer: apply 5000 kg of organic fertilizer per mu, 9 kg of pure nitrogen, 11.5 kg of P2O5, converted from P2O5 to 25 kg of diammonium phosphate, 75 kg of K2O, and 1 kg of zinc sulfate; for plots deficient in boron, use 0.5 kg of borax. Building up soil fertility is the guarantee of high quality and high yield in winter wheat.

Precise and Uniform Sowing to Create a High-Quality Population

Implement precise and uniform sowing to lower the starting point of the population. In the early growth stage, promote early development of strong seedlings; in the middle stage, reduce ineffective tillers and create a reasonable, high-quality population; in the late stage, protect flowers and increase grains to raise grain weight. Precise and uniform sowing helps improve the productivity of individual plants and is a major technical step in high-yield cultivation. At the same time, this technique can effectively prevent the yield reduction and quality deterioration caused by wheat lodging, and is the foundation of high-quality cultivation.

Optimizing the Fertilizer Application Structure and Implementing "Nitrogen Fertilizer Postponement"

Research shows that, on the basis of balanced fertilization according to soil testing and formula, appropriately increasing the amount of nitrogen fertilizer by no more than 20% of the total nitrogen application, and adjusting the ratio of basal to topdressed nitrogen to 1:1, with the timing of nitrogen topdressing postponed from the regreening and standing-up stages to the jointing and booting stages, that is, the "nitrogen fertilizer postponement" technique, helps achieve both increased yield and improved quality in winter wheat. The "nitrogen fertilizer postponement" technique, combined with precise and uniform sowing, has significant effects on shaping an ideal plant type, optimizing population structure, increasing the tiller-to-ear rate and the uniformity of the ear layer, and reducing the degeneration of spikelets and florets. It also significantly increases the number of grains per ear, delays plant senescence, improves photosynthetic efficiency in the late stage, and improves quality, making it the core technique of high-quality, high-yield cultivation for winter wheat.

Scientific Irrigation and Timely Pest and Disease Control

According to laboratory analysis, irrigation tends to reduce the protein content of wheat. If irrigation is combined with increased nitrogen fertilizer application, then both yield and protein content increase at the same time, and the two are positively correlated. Therefore, high-quality, high-yield wheat fields must be irrigated sufficiently before sowing to ensure adequate soil moisture for sowing. For wheat fields with sufficient pre-winter soil moisture and a moderate population, winter irrigation may be omitted, and the traditional standing-up water used in production can be shifted, in combination with the "nitrogen fertilizer postponement" technique, to the jointing and heading stages, thus forming a technical system of rational fertilizer and water management.

In the late stage of winter wheat production, strengthen field management and timely control wheat rust, powdery mildew, and fusarium head blight to further improve the yield and quality of winter wheat.