Objective: According to the investigations on soil temperature dynamics in the spring maize growing season, a field experiment was conducted to examine the effects of different maize culturing practices on soil temperature dynamics and soil accumulated temperature (>10degreesC) in Loess Plateau. Hence it has a certain reference value for understanding the influence of different culturing practices on spring maize growth. Method: Shendan10 was used as the test crop. Three field water management practices, including supplementary irrigation (SI), rain-fed (RF) and plastic film mulching (FM), were adopted in spring maize fields in 2007. Maize straw mulching (SM) was added in 2008. The experiment was arranged in a randomized complete block design. Result: The results showed that the plastic film had a significant warming effect while the maize straw mulching had a cooling effect. During the course of crop growing season, soil accumulated temperature (>10degreesC) had the peak at vegetative growth stages (VE-R1), followed by growth stages (R1-R6), and reached the lowest value at seedling stage (PT-VE). Moreover, soil accumulated temperature was different in different culturing practices during the course of crop growing stages. Soil accumulated temperature was lower in the PT-VE period in plastic film mulching treatment, VE-R1 period in supplementary irrigation treatment and R1-R6 period in rain-fed treatment. The response of plastic film mulching soil temperature was most sensitive to air temperature, and the response of straw mulching soil temperature was most insensitive to the air temperature. The crop grain yield was significantly improved under both the supplementary irrigation and the film mulching treatments compared to the rain-fed treatment, with the increases of 30.0% and 18.1% in 2007, and 25.7% and 29.7% in 2008, respectively. Conclusion: It is concluded that different maize culturing practices in the Loess Plateau not only affect the soil temperature dynamic changes, but also affect the maize growth and the utilization of the soil heat resources.
