Abstract: In the paper, two winter wheat varieties, shaan 253 and changwu 134, were used in the experiments. Water culture in artificial growth shelter was designed to investigate response of water status and growth. The results showed that the relative water content, water potential and leaf area showed the trend of drop in the course of osmotic stress, however, root length, root area and root/shoot showed first increase then drop. The maximum value reached at stress 24h for shaan253, and 30h for changwu134. There were not marked changes of chlorophyll a and b before stress 30h, but rapidly dropped with the subsequent drought. It was indicated that the content of chlorophyll was not affected by the moderate drought.