Drip fertigation increases water and nitrogen use efficiency, and reduces nitrogen leaching in comparison to conventional flood irrigation and over fertilization in plastic greenhouse vegetable production. However, it is unknown whether this also improves yield stability, possibly through improved root growth. A two-factor field trial was conducted in a randomized block experimental design with drip vs. flood fertigation and with vs. without straw application over eleven growing seasons for six years with following treatments: (i) flood irrigation with over fertilization (conventional practice, hereafter CIF); (ii) CIF + Straw; (iii) drip fertigation with reduced irrigation and fertilization (hereafter DIF); (iv) DIF + Straw. The CIF treatments had application rates of 600 mm + 900 kg N ha⁻¹ season⁻¹ and DIF had 300 mm + 200 kg N ha⁻¹ season⁻¹. The ingrowth core method was used to measure root-growth characteristics, including root dry weight, root length density and specific root length. The water and nitrogen use efficiency and the inter-annual variation coefficient of tomato yield were also measured and calculated. There was no significant effect of straw on any of the variables measured, but there were significant differences related to CIF and DIF treatments. DIF had 101 % higher water use efficiency (p < 0.05; 25 kg m⁻³) and 296 % higher partial nitrogen fertilizer productivity (p < 0.05; 423 kg kg^-1 N) in comparison to CIF. Furthermore, the inter-annual coefficient of variation in tomato yield was less in the DIF treatment by 18 %. Root dry weight (+31 %) and root length density (+34 %) for the DIF treatment were significantly higher for the 0−30 cm depth as compared to the CIF treatment, but lower at 30−50 cm depth (7 % and 11 %, respectively). Compared with autumn-winter growing season, winter-spring season significantly increased root dry weight and tomato yield and reduced inter-annual variation coefficient of yield (p < 0.05), and meanwhile the treatments did not significantly affect these seasonal differences. Our results highlight that drip fertigation improves the resource use efficiency and production stability due to the promotion of better root growth in plastic shed vegetable production regardless of growing season, and is therefore a more sustainable and effective technology of saving water and reducing risk of environment pollution.

与传统的洪水灌溉和塑料温室蔬菜生产中的过度施肥相比，滴灌施肥提高了水和氮的利用效率，并减少了氮的淋失。但是，尚不清楚这是否也可能通过改善根系生长来提高产量稳定性。在随机的分块实验设计中进行了一项两因素田间试验，该试验在六个生长季节的11个生长季节进行了滴灌vs.洪水施肥和不施秸秆，并进行了以下处理：（i）过度施肥的洪水灌溉（常规做法，此后为CIF）；（ii）CIF +秸秆；（iii）减少灌溉和施肥的滴灌施肥（以下简称DIF）；（iv）DIF +稻草。CIF处理的施药量为600 mm + 900 kg N ha ^-1季节^-1和DIF具有300 mm + 200 kg N ha ^-1的季节^-1。使用向内生长核心方法测量根的生长特征，包括根干重，根长密度和比根长。还测量并计算了水和氮的利用效率以及番茄产量的年际变化系数。秸秆对任何测得的变量均无显着影响，但与CIF和DIF处理有关。DIF的水分利用效率提高了101％（p <0.05; 25 kg m ^-3）和部分氮肥生产率提高了296％（p <0.05; 423 kg kg ^-1N）与CIF相比。此外，在DIF处理中，番茄单产的年际变化系数降低了18％。与CIF处理相比，0-30 cm深度的DIF处理的根干重（+31％）和根长度密度（+34％）显着较高，但在30-50 cm深度则较低（7％和分别为11％）。与秋冬生长季相比，冬春季节显着增加了根部干重和番茄产量，并降低了年际产量变异系数（p<0.05），同时治疗并没有明显影响这些季节性差异。我们的结果表明，滴灌施肥技术可以促进塑料棚蔬菜生产中更好的根系生长，而无论其生长季节如何，从而提高了资源利用效率和生产稳定性，因此是节水和降低环境污染风险的更可持续，更有效的技术。 。