Key Technical Points for Water-Saving, Fertilizer-Saving and High-Yield Winter Wheat

????1. Key technical points for water-saving and high-yield cultivation of winter wheat:

(1) Pay attention to soil type. The suitable soil types for this technique are sandy loam, light loam and medium loam. It is not suitable for use on sandy soil (low water storage capacity) or clay soil (although water storage capacity is large, the wilting moisture content is high, evaporation water consumption is large, and root growth resistance is great). The soil fertility level is required to be medium to high grade.

(2) Select suitable varieties. Varieties with medium plant height, short and small upper leaves, compact spike type, neat spike layer, large spike capacity, stable grain number per spike, and early and rapid grain filling are preferable.

(3) Irrigate sufficient bottom soil moisture, and strictly avoid sowing while relying on whatever moisture happens to be present. Irrigating sufficient bottom moisture to adjust soil water storage can delay the spring irrigation time, and at the same time adequate soil moisture helps achieve full seedling emergence in one sowing. The method is to irrigate 50 cubic meters per mu in normal precipitation years, so that the water storage in the 0-200 cm soil body before wheat sowing reaches 90% of field capacity.

(4) Rational fertilizer formulation, all applied as base fertilizer. Following the principle of limiting nitrogen, stabilizing phosphorus, and supplementing potassium and zinc, with organic and inorganic fertilizers combined, all fertilizer is applied as base fertilizer to simplify operations. Generally, under medium-to-high fertility conditions, to achieve a yield target of 500-600 kg per mu, each mu requires 1.5-2.0 cubic meters of organic fertilizer, 15-20 kg of ammonium dihydrogen phosphate, 1-2 kg of potassium sulfate, and 1-2 kg of zinc sulfate.

(5) Sow appropriately late and increase seeding rate. Under late sowing with increased seeding rate, the number of tillers per plant can be reduced, ineffective water consumption in the early stage can be decreased, and the number of seminal roots per spike can be increased, achieving water saving and high yield. The suitable sowing period range is October 5-20, with the optimal period being October 10-15. The suitable basic seedling number, counting from October 5, is 280,000 plants per mu; for each day the sowing date is delayed, 15,000 more seedlings are needed, and the leaf age at the overwintering stage should preferably be 3-4.5.

(6) Fine land preparation and uniform sowing. Select seeds carefully, plow the soil to 15-20 cm, make the soil surface fine and level, keep sowing depth consistent, and ensure uniform seed distribution.

(7) Loose soil covering for moisture conservation, pest prevention and healthy seedlings. After sowing, compact in the furrows but not on the ridges, keeping the surface covered with loose soil. Also carry out seed dressing with chemicals and soil disinfection to control soil pests and ensure full and strong seedlings.

(8) Irrigate spring water late, at the right time and in the right amount. The purpose is to promote roots and control leaves by late irrigation, which helps build a wheat population structure with deep roots, high photosynthetic efficiency and low water consumption, increases spike capacity, and ensures water supply during the grain-filling period. The best time for one spring irrigation is from jointing to booting stage; the best times for two spring irrigations are the first at jointing stage and the second at flowering stage.

????2. High-quality and high-yield cultivation technique of postponing nitrogen fertilizer application for winter wheat

In traditional wheat cultivation, some apply nitrogen fertilizer all at once as base fertilizer with no topdressing; some use 60%-70% as base fertilizer and 30%-40% as topdressing, generally topdressing from the reviving stage to the erect-growing stage; and some add one topdressing when irrigating winter water before wheat overwintering. The above fertilizer proportions and timings place nitrogen fertilizer heavily in the early growth period of wheat, which in high-yield fields can cause an excessively large population in the early growth period, increased ineffective tillers, field shading in the mid period, greater lodging risk, and easy premature senescence in the late period, affecting yield and quality, with low nitrogen fertilizer use efficiency. The nitrogen fertilizer postponement technique reduces the base fertilizer proportion of nitrogen fertilizer to 50% and increases the topdressing proportion to 50%; for wheat fields with high soil fertility, the base fertilizer proportion is 30%-50% and the topdressing proportion is 50%-70%; at the same time, the spring topdressing time is postponed to the jointing stage, and for plots with high soil fertility using varieties with high tiller-to-spike rate, it can be postponed to the period from jointing stage to flag leaf emergence.

Yield increase and efficiency improvement: compared with traditional fertilization, yield increases by 10%-15%; it can increase wheat grain protein and wet gluten content, prolong dough development time and dough stability time, and significantly improve the nutritional quality and processing quality of high-quality strong-gluten wheat; it increases nitrogen fertilizer use efficiency by more than 10% and reduces nitrogen pollution to the environment; the high-yield and high-efficiency irrigation technique supporting this technique can also improve water use efficiency by more than 10%.

????Technical points:

(1) Nitrogen fertilizer postponement refers to reducing the base fertilizer proportion, increasing the topdressing proportion, and postponing the application time of the first spring fertilizer and water. For large-spike varieties with low tiller-to-spike rate, it is postponed from the reviving stage or erect-growing stage in conventional high-yield cultivation to the early jointing stage; for medium-spike varieties with high tiller-to-spike rate, it is postponed to the middle jointing stage.

(2) Establish a rational population structure and yield structure for the two types of varieties with super-high-yield potential. For large-spike varieties with low tiller-to-spike rate, 130,000-150,000 basic seedlings per mu; for medium-spike varieties with high tiller-to-spike rate, 80,000-120,000 basic seedlings per mu.

(3) According to the fertilizer requirements of super-high-yield wheat fields for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium elements, determine the high-yield and high-efficiency application amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium elements to improve fertilizer use efficiency.

(4) According to the water requirement pattern of super-high-yield wheat fields, the water-saving and high-efficiency irrigation periods are bottom moisture, jointing, and early grain filling, with 40 cubic meters per mu each time, to improve water use efficiency.

(5) Cultivate super-high-yield

wheat field soil fertility, reaching a soil organic matter content of 1.2%, total nitrogen 0.08%, alkaline hydrolyzable nitrogen 70 mg/kg, available phosphorus 15 mg/kg, and available potassium 90 mg/kg and above in the 0-20 cm soil layer.