Effects of Reducing Nitrogen Fertilizer Application on Yield and Quality of Weak Gluten Wheat in Southern Henan Province

The study took Yangmai 13 as the test material to explore the effects of nitrogen reduction on yield and quality of weak gluten wheat. A field experiment was set up with six treatments: no nitrogen application（CK₁）, conventional application of common urea（CK₂）, conventional application of controlled-release urea（T₁）, 10% controlled-release urea reduction（T₂）, 15% reduction（T₃） and 20% reduction（T₄）. The differences in wheat yield, dry matter accumulation, grain quality and flour characteristics among all treatments were analyzed. The results showed that the grain yield of T₁ was the highest, followed by T₂, and was significantly higher than that of CK₂. Plant height, spike length, grain number per spike and 1000-grain weight of nitrogen-applied treatments were significantly higher than those of CK₁, with no significant differences among nitrogen treatments. The 1000-grain weight and spikes per unit area of T₁ and T₂ treatments were both higher than those in other treatments, while there was no significant difference between T₂ and T₁. Dry matter mainly accumulated in stems at heading stage and in spikes at maturity stage. In T₂ treatment, grain protein content（11.54%）, sedimentation value（29.59 mL） and test weight（807.40 g/L） were significantly higher than those of CK₁, and showed no significant difference compared with CK₂. The softening degree（91.00 BU） of T₂ was significantly lower than that of CK₁, while its extensibility（177.41 mm） and wet gluten content（21.70%） were significantly higher than those of CK₁, with no significant difference from CK₂. Dough development time（1.80 min） and stability time（2.22 min） of T₂ were significantly lower than those of T₁. In conclusion, reducing controlled-release urea application by 10% can stabilize yield and maintain grain quality of weak gluten wheat in southern Henan, which provides a feasible technical scheme for green and efficient wheat production.