Effects of Minimum and No Tillage on Seed Filling and Yield of Summer Maize

Soil tillage practices can affect total nitrogen and yield of summer maize.In order to study the impacts of minimum and no tillage on leaf area index,grain filling rate and crop yield under winter wheat-summer maize cropping system,five tillage systems were adopted in Longkou city,Shandong province.The five tillage practices included conventional tillage without straw return,conventional tillage with straw return,rotary tillage with straw return,serrated disk harrow tillage with straw return,and no-tillge with straw return.Results showed that seed filling rates of summer maize under all tillage practices were well fit to the Logistic equation Y=k/(1+ae~(-bt)).Compared to conventional tillage,serrated disk harrow tillage can improve leaf area index and seed filling rate and increase maize yield by 14.5%.However,no-tillge with straw cover decreased maize yield by 11%.