Abstract: Spray and drip irrigation have significantly promoted the spatial layout of planting crops in modern agriculture in recent years. Especially, the irrigation efficiency has also been improved to reduce the labor costs in the large-scale production. While the planting without ridges can be expected to serve as the promising potential technology during irrigation. This study aims to explore the effects of the ridgeless planting on the yield, nitrogen uptake and utilization of the winter wheat. A two-year (2022-2024) field experiment was carried out in Tai’an, Shandong Province, China. The wheat cultivar Shannong 56 (with the medium and multi spike characteristics) and Shannong 43 (with the relatively larger spike characteristics) were used as the experimental materials. The planting pattern without ridges (T3) was set as the target treatment. Two control group were taken as the traditional planting patterns of narrow furrows/wide ridges (T1) and wide furrows/narrow ridges (T2). The sowing areas of T1 and T2 were 28.57% and 10.71% lower than those of T3 pattern, respectively, due to the presence of the ridges. A systematic investigation was implemented to clarify the influence of the ridgeless planting on the grain yield, yield components, accumulation and transformation of above-ground dry matter and nitrogen, nitrogen uptake efficiency (UPE), utilization efficiency (UTE) and NUE of the winter wheat. A comparison was also made on the tradeoff between the wheat edge growth and seeds sowing area under different sowing patterns. The results showed that the edge growth effects in the T3 treatment were relatively lower 28.57% and 10.71% than those in the T1 and T2 treatment, respectively, in terms of the spike number per unit area, dry matter and nitrogen accumulation at jointing, anthesis and maturity, as well as nitrogen uptake efficiency. The edge growth effects of above indices were also reduced to promote the land utilization rates, grain yield and NUE, compared with the T1 and T2. The reason was that the absence of the ridge in the T3 treatment was reduced the sowing area. Specifically, the spike number per unit area of T3 increased by 18.33% and 9.32%, respectively, compared with the T1 and T2. Meanwhile, the dry matter that remobilized from the vegetation organs at anthesis to the grain increased by 6.58% and 9.22%, respectively. The dry matter production post-anthesis increased by 15.18% and 8.47%, respectively. Thus, the yield of the T3 increased by 14.64% and 9.27% respectively. The above-ground nitrogen accumulation in the T3 treatment increased by 13.45% and 8.13%, respectively. While the UPE increased by 13.45% and 8.11%, respectively. Therefore, the NUE increased by 14.68% and 9.30%, respectively. The correlation analysis showed that the above-ground nitrogen accumulation and the UPE in the T3 pattern were concurrently improved the yield and NUE. The finding can also provide a technical reference to increase the yield and the NUE of the winter wheat under the large-scale planting.