The rice–ratoon rice cropping system has the advantages of saving labor and imparting economic benefits. Optimizing tillage and straw management is beneficial for improving ratoon rice growth and yield. In this study, field experiments were conducted to examine the effects of four tillage and straw managements on the growth and yield of a rice–ratoon rice cropping system in central China in 2020 to 2021. The managements included no-till with main-season and ratoon-season rice residues retained on the soil’s surface (NT+S), plow tillage with residue retention (CT+S), no-till with residues removed (NT-S), and plow tillage with residues removed (CT-S). Compared to NT, CT significantly increased yield by 33.70% and 29.12% in the main and ratoon seasons, respectively. Compared to straw removal, straw returning significantly increased yield by 13.37% and 27.29% in the main and ratoon seasons, respectively. In general, both CT and straw returning improved root function (root activity and root dry weight) and photosynthetic capacity (leaf area index, net photosynthetic rate, and leaf chlorophyll content). CT combined with straw returning was able to achieve the highest annual rice yield.

Alternate tillage (AT) has the potential to reduce inputs and improve soil quality and crop yield, but there has been no research on the effect of AT on soil and wheat in a rice–wheat rotation system. In this study, field experiments were conducted to examine the effects of four tillage management methods (conventional tilling (CT) in each crop (RCT–WCT), no tilling (NT) in rice and conventional tilling in wheat (RNT–WCT, AT1), conventional tilling in rice and no tilling in wheat (RCT–WNT, AT2), and no tilling in each crop (RNT–WNT)) on the physical properties of soil, wheat growth, and yield. At the 0–5 cm soil layer, CT in the wheat season increased bulk density (BD) and decreased total properties, but it decreased BD at the 5–40 cm soil layer, and the effect of RCT–WCT was significantly greater than that of RNT–WCT. CT in the wheat season increased the root activity, root dry weight, net photosynthetic rate, leaf area index, antioxidant enzyme activities, and yield, and there was no significant effect between RCT–WCT and RNT–WCT. RNT-WCT has the potential to reduce inputs and maintain wheat yields.