Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jul 11;18(7):e0288459.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288459. eCollection 2023.

Improving wheat seedling quality through deep ploughing and soil compaction at sowing in lime concretion black soil

Xuejun Cui  1   2 , Zhiwei Wang  1 , Tengfei Zhuang  1 , Jianqiang Sun  3 , Youhong Song  1
Affiliations

Improving wheat seedling quality through deep ploughing and soil compaction at sowing in lime concretion black soil

Xuejun Cui et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The straw incorporation in lime concretion black soil compromises the emergence and quality of winter wheat seedlings in Huaibei Plain, China, lowering the potential of wheat productivity. To overcome the disadvantage, a two-year field experiment was conducted in 2017-18 and 2018-19 to investigate the effects of different tillage modes on seedling emergence and subsequent seedling growth, and final grain yield (GY) in winter wheat. The modes are rotary tillage with compaction after sowing (RCT), rotary tillage after deep ploughing (PT) and rotary tillage after deep ploughing with compaction after sowing (PCT), with the traditional rotary tillage (RT) method as the control. Compared to RT, greater soil moisture content (SMC) at the seedling stage was observed in deep ploughing or compaction treatment, and the highest SMC was achieved in PCT; the time of reaching the maximum number of seedlings was 1 d sooner in RCT or PT, and 3 d in PCT; the seedling number in RCT, PT and PCT was significantly increased by 32.6%, 34.5% and 61.5% respectively. The population size, shoot and root growth of winter wheat in ploughing mode was significantly enhanced than that of rotary treatment at the over-wintering stage; compared to no compaction after sowing, plant growth in compaction treatments was significantly promoted with greater plant population size and height of seedlings. At harvest, GY in RCT, PT and PCT was significantly improved by 5.87%, 10.8% and 16.4%, respectively, compared to RT and the highest GY was achieved in PCT by up to 8, 350.1 kg ha-1 due to the increased spike number. In conclusion, the seedling quality in the straw incorporation practice was improved through rotary after deep ploughing and compaction after sowing for lime concretion black soil in Huaibei Plain, China or a similar soil type.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Monthly rainfall and temperature during the two growing seasons of wheat from October to June in 2017–18 and 2018–19.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Effect of different tillage methods on seed emergence dynamics after sowing in 2017–18 and 2018–19 growing seasons.
Note: RT, the traditional rotary method; RCT, rotary with compaction after sowing; PT, rotary after deep ploughing; PCT, the rotary after deep ploughing with compaction after sowing. Vertical bars represent standard errors.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Comparisons of leaf chlorophyll content (SPAD value) under different tillage methods at seedling stage in 2017–18 and 2018–19 growing seasons.
Note: RT, the traditional rotary method; RCT, rotary with compaction after sowing; PT, rotary after deep ploughing; PCT, the rotary after deep ploughing with compaction after sowing. Values followed by the same letter within a column in each year are not significantly different at P<0.05, as determined by the LSD test. Vertical bars represent standard errors.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Comparisons of leaf area of seedlings under different tillage methods in 2017–18 and 2018–19 growing seasons.
RT, the traditional rotary method; RCT, rotary with compaction after sowing; PT, rotary after deep ploughing; PCT, the rotary after deep ploughing with compaction after sowing. Vertical bars represent standard errors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Bernhardt N. Taxonomic treatments of Triticeae and the wheat genus Triticum. In: Molnár-Láng M, Ceoloni C, Doležel J, editors. Alien introgression in wheat: cytogenetics, molecular biology, and genomics. Switzerland: Springer, International Publishing, 2015:1–19.
    1. Li M., Feng J., Zhou H., Najeeb U., Li J., Song Y., et al.. 2022. Overcoming reproductive compromise under heat stress in wheat: physiological and genetic regulation, and breeding strategy. Frontiers in Plant Science. 13:881813. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.881813 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Li D., Qi H., Ma X.Q., 2013. The climate index and assessment about drought and flood in maize’s key growth stage in Huaibei Plain in Anhui province. Chinese Agriculture Science Bulletin, 29 (17): 208–216 (in Chinese).
    1. Zhang L., Liu H.H., Sun J.Q., Li J.C., Song Y.H., 2018. Seedling characteristics and grain yield of maize grown under straw retention affected by sowing irrigation and splitting nitrogen use. Field Crops Research, 225: 22–31.
    1. Shen X.S., Li J.C., Qu H.J., Wei F.Z., Zhang Y., 2011. Effects of straw returned to the field on growth and water use efficiency of maize in lime concretion black soil region. Journal of China Agricultural University, 16 (2), 28–33 (in Chinese).

Publication types