The grain yields of wheat plants are synthetically affected by geographical locations, ecological and environmental factors, various genotypes and production conditions. Different wheat genotypes are characterized with high yield through differential ways under the given areas and ecological conditions. In previous studies, high grain yields of wheat plants were usually acquired by using the conventionally drilling-planting methods. To our knowledge, however, the studies on influence of the wide bed planting method on ageing processes and grain yields have not been reported so far. The aim of this study was to provide theoretical basis and technical means for wide bed planting methods, in order to achieve higher grain yields of wheat plants and high-efficiency utilization of agricultural resources. Field experiments were conducted to measure ageing processes and grain yields under different planting patterns using wide bed planting method (8 cm of bed width) with three methods, including spacing interval 7 cm (KF7), 12 cm (KF12) and 17 cm (KF17). The conventional drilling planting methods (20 cm spacing interval (1-2 cm of bed width) was used as control (CK). Two wheat cultivars, Lankao Aizao 8 and Aikang 58, which are widely planted in Henan province and characterized with large- and multi-spike, respectively, were grown in the experiment farm of Hennan Agricultural University in the growing seasons of 2010-2012. Physiological parameters (e.g. chlorophyll relative content (SPAD, Soil and Plant Analysis Development), content of malondialdehyde (MDA) and activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and peroxides (POD)) were measured in the flag leaves during the wheat grain filling period. The results indicated that, compared to conventional drilling planting methods, chlorophyll degradation in leaves of wheat plants grown using three wide bed planting methods was delayed and contents of MDA were decreased, whereas activity of antioxidant enzymes, spikes numbers and grain yield per unit area were significantly increased. For Aikang 58 cultivar, the contents of chlorophyll pigments, the activities of antioxidant enzymes and grain yield was the highest in KF12, followed by KF17, and the worst being KF7. For Lankao Aizao 8 cultivar, however, the tendency was KF7 > KF12 > KF17. Under the given growth conditions in this study, the highest contents of chlorophyll pigments, the most activities of antioxidant enzymes, and the lowest contents of MDA appeared in both treatments KF12 with Aikang 58 and KF7 with Lankao Aizao 8. It can be concluded that the special spacing interval of 12 cm for Aikang 58 and 7 cm for Lankao Aizao 8 under wide bed planting conditions can be used as feasible and promising planting patterns with the enhanced physiological activities of grains and the delayed senescence processes, resulting in the reasonable yield components.