Aiming at the problems of large amount of nitrogen fertilizer input, low utilization rate and single fertilizer source in traditional spring wheat planting in the oasis irrigation area of Northwest China, the effects of multiple cropping green manure after spring wheat on photosynthetic source, growth characteristics and yield of spring wheat under the condition of reduced nitrogen application were studied, with a view to provide the technical support for the construction of a nitrogen-saving and high-yield green planting model of spring wheat in the experimental area.

The split plot experiment was carried out in the oasis irrigation area of Hexi Corridor from 2021 to 2023. The main area was set up with two planting modes: post-wheat fallow (W) and post-wheat multiple cropping of hairy leaf (W-G), and the split plot was the traditional full nitrogen application of 100% (N1, 180 kg·hm^-2), reduced nitrogen application of 15% (N2, 153 kg·hm^-2) and reduced nitrogen application of 30% (N3, 126 kg·hm^-2). The photosynthetic source, stay-green of leaves, growth characteristics and yield performance related indicators of spring wheat under different treatments were measured and calculated. The Logistic equation of dry matter accumulation, the correlation between different indicators and the compensation index were constructed. The objective was to explore the compensation effect of multiple cropping green manure on the growth and yield of nitrogen-reduced spring wheat.

Post-wheat multiple cropping of green manure could compensate for the loss of photosynthetic source, growth characteristics and yield caused by nitrogen reduction to a certain extent. Among them, the compensation effect was the best under the condition of multiple cropping green manure after spring wheat combined with 15% nitrogen reduction (W-GN2), which showed super compensation and equal compensation effect. Multiple cropping of green manure significantly increased leaf area index, leaf area duration and stay-green of leaves in spring wheat at the late reproductive stage. Compared with the traditional post-wheat fallow total nitrogen fertilization (WN1), W-GN2 increased the average leaf area index, leaf area duration and stay-green of leaves by 17.7%, 17.5% and 7.6% on the 75-90 days after seedling, respectively. W-GN2 optimized the growth characteristics of spring wheat. Compared with WN1, the average dry matter accumulation, the maximum growth rate of dry matter and crop growth rate under W-GN2 increased by 6.2%, 6.9% and 5.1%, respectively, and the net assimilation rate decreased by 6.2%. Due to the compensation of multiple cropping green manure for photosynthetic source and growth characteristics, the photosynthesis, population growth and material accumulation rate of spring wheat remained high in the late growth stage, which was conducive to the improvement of grain yield. The grain yield under W-GN2 was 14.7% higher than that under WN1, which was mainly attributed to the compensation of the spike number, 1000-grain weight and harvest index by multiple cropping green manure, and W-GN2 was 6.5%, 6.9% and 13.2% higher than that under WN1, respectively. According to the correlation analysis, it was found that W-GN2 treatment had better performance in photosynthetic source, growth characteristics and grain yield formation, and mainly promoted the formation of yield by compensating the photosynthetic source of spring wheat.

Multiple cropping of hairy vetch after spring wheat with 15% reduction of nitrogen application could be used as a perfect production technology to regulate the photosynthetic source and growth characteristics of spring wheat in the northwest oasis irrigation area to achieve nitrogen saving and yield increase.