No‐tillage combined with residue retention and plastic mulching improves maize yields in a cold semiarid region of northern China

Abstract Management strategies are needed to solve the problem of low soil temperatures under no‐tillage combined with residue retention, which can reduce crop yields in cold semiarid regions. Plastic mulching has been proposed as a solution. A 4‐year field study was conducted to investigate the effects of no‐tillage combined with residue retention and plastic mulching (NTRP), compared with no‐tillage with residue retention (NTR) and conventional tillage (CT) on soil moisture content, soil temperature, water use efficiency (WUE) and maize yield at a cold semiarid site in northern China. Compared with CT, NTR significantly increased soil moisture content by 11.5% in the 0–1.8‐m soil profile ( p < .05) but decreased soil temperature by 0.5 °C at the depths of 5–25 cm ( p < .05). The maize yield was not significantly different between NTR and CT but was lower under NTR in 2013 and 2015. Compared with NTR, NTRP significantly increased soil temperature by 1.9 °C at the depths of 5–25 cm ( p < .05) by changing the spatiotemporal distribution of hydrothermal properties, and ultimately significantly increased maize yields and WUE ( p < .05). Although NTRP decreased the soil moisture between 0.4 and 1.2 m of the soil profile, there was no significant difference between NTRP and CT over the entire 0–1.8‐m soil profile. Our results suggest that NTRP reduces the limitations of NTR on soil temperature and thus improves maize grain yield in cold semiarid regions of northern China. Therefore, using plastic mulch to balance and optimize soil moisture and temperature under agricultural practice maybe a wise choice for maintaining and increasing maize productivity in cold semiarid regions. Highlights No‐tillage combined with residue retention and plastic mulching (NTRP) reduces the limitation of no‐tillage with residue retention (NTR) on soil temperature. NTRP maintains the beneficial effects of NTR on soil water conservation. NTRP increased crop yield and water use efficiency.