Nutrient Cycling and Nitrogen Management Impact of Sowing Method and Soil Water Consumption on Yield Nitrogen Utilization in Dryland Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Abstract

The current study was designed to investigate the best sowing method that encourages dry matter accumulation to increase dryland wheat yield, grain quality, and protein content. Three different seeding methods were applied: (I) wide-space sowing (WSS), (II) furrow sowing, and (III) drill sowing. Two nitrogen levels, namely low nitrogen (N1) and high nitrogen (N2), were also applied, and the pure nitrogen was 150 kg ha−1 and 210 kg ha−1, respectively. Wide-space sowing significantly increased the ears and yield production, the maximum, and average grain-filling rate while furrow sowing delayed the disappearance of the population after anthesis, increased the duration of grain filling, and then significantly increased the number of spikes and the 1000-grain weight increased, respectively. Drill sowing compared to wide-space sowing significantly increased the content of nitrogen in the grain of the nitrogen harvest index, and it increased the content of protein and the yield of protein, respectively. In addition, the grain yield and protein yield of wide-precision sowing were significantly higher than that of trench sowing. Our findings suggest that wide-space sowing was beneficial for increasing water consumption during the growth period, increasing the tiller dynamics, improving the plant dry matter quality, and increasing the grain protein.