Performance of Winter-Seeded Spring Wheat in Inner Mongolia

Growing spring wheat in Inner Mongolia is challenging because of the short growing period, dry-hot winds, and heat-forced maturity. There are also problems with growing winter wheat varieties, such as frost damage, spring droughts, and "late spring cold". These factors have restricted efforts to increase yields. In order to address these challenges, this study adopted a "spring wheat winter-sowing" planting model for growing wheat in the Hetao Plain Irrigation District in Inner Mongolia and studied wheat varieties with different vernalization requirements through three consecutive field trials. The effects of different sowing dates were analyzed on seed germination and seedling emergence, growth, material accumulation, and yield formation, and the differences were characterized from traditional spring wheat. The results indicated that delaying the sowing date increased the spring emergence rate of the wheat varieties. The winter-seeded spring wheat germinated and ripened after three and seven days, respectively, earlier than the spring-seeded. The grain yield for the winter-seeded wheat was parallel to the spring-seeded wheat. Compared with the spring-seeded wheat, the winter-seeded wheat displayed less panicles, but greater grains per spike, and a 1000-grain weight. When seeded in winter, Yongliang 4 performed better than Ningdong 11 and Henong 7106 in terms of the emergence rate, material accumulation, and grain yield. The best seeding time for the winter-seeded spring wheat in the Hetao Irrigation District of Inner Mongolia is early November.