Impacts of water-retaining agent on soil moisture and water use in different growth stages of winter wheat

In order to ascertain the mechanism of water-retaining agent on soil moisture and water use in different growth stage of winter wheat, a field experiment in hilly and drought farming region of western Henan province was conducted to investigate the effects of water-retaining agent on holding moisture, characteristics of water consumption of crop, and water use efficiency (WUE) in different reproductive stage. The results indicated that soil moisture in 0– 100 cm soil layer was increased, biomass accumulation was raised, water consumption of winter wheat was decreased, yield and WUE were all increased after applying water-retaining agent. While the soil moisture and storage capacity of treatment with 60 kg/hm2 and 90 kg/hm2 of water-retaining agent at each growth were higher than that with other treatments, but water consuption was lower. What’s more, from sowing to jointing stage, the biomass of winter wheat increased with the increase of water-retaining agent. Jointing-booting and filling-harvest, the biomass of treatment 60 kg/hm2 of water-retaining agent had the most increasing compared with other treatments. But from booting to filling stage, the biomass of treatment 30 kg/hm2 of water-retaining agent increased evidently compared with other treatments. At different growth stages, WUE of treatment with 60 kg/hm2 of water-retaining agent was the highest among different treatments except for booting-filling stage. It was concluded that yield and WUE of treatment with 60 kg/hm2 of water-retaining agent were the highest among different treatments, and compared to control, increased by 47.4% and 10.6 kg/(mm·hm2) respectively.