Abstract: To clarify the drought resistance and stable yield effect of different sowing methods, we examined the effects of different sowing methods (furrow sowing, wide space sowing, and drilling sowing) and different nitrogen application rates (N150: 150 kg·hm^-2; N210: 210 kg·hm^-2) on soil water content, yield formation, and water use efficiency in dryland wheat based on a field experiment in Wenxi County Dryland Wheat Experimental Base in Shanxi Province during 2018-2019 (drought year). The results showed that under furrow sowing and wide space sowing, 0-200 cm soil water storage of wintering and jointing stages was increased, total water consumption was significantly increased by 10-19 mm; 1000grain weight of 5-35 days after anthesis, spike length, spikelet number, and percentage of fertile spikelets were increased; spike number was increased by 5%-17%, grains per spike was increased by 2%-6% and 1000grain weight by 5%-8%, which ultimately significantly increased yield by 12%-31% and water use efficiency by 9%-25%. Furrow sowing performed better than wide space sowing. In addition, compared with N210, N150 reduced water consumption from sowing to anthesis stage but increased that after anthesis; it also significantly increased spike number, yield, and water use efficiency. Compared with drilling sowing, the yield-increase effect of water consumption for furrow sowing and wide space sowing was 30-46 kg·hm^-2·mm^-1. Compared to N210, the yield-increase effect of water consumption for N150 reached 25-45 kg·hm^-2·mm^-1. In conclusion, in the drought year, furrow sowing in dryland wheat fields is conducive to accumulate soil water to jointing stage, reducing water consumption in the early growth stage and increasing water consumption in the mid-late growth stages, which would increase effective tiller number, mainly by increasing spike number and optimizing spike traits to increase yield and efficiency. Such effect is better under N150.

Key words: dryland wheat, furrow sowing, nitrogen application rate, soil moisture, yield.