Durum crop emergence from deep sowing in 2020

Abstract

Key findings • Three experimental lines were evaluated for the effects on grain yield from deep sowing. These lines had up to 75% longer coleoptiles than CaparoiA (check variety) sown at 4 cm, 7 cm and 12.5 cm depths. • The long coleoptile lines showed small, statistically non-significant improvements in emergence from deep sowing and yield in the deep sown treatments relative to CaparoiA. • The lack of significant differences could be due to the excellent soil moisture conditions at sowing in this experiment, which reduced the adaptive advantage of the long coleoptile lines. Further work is needed to assess the value of the long coleoptile lines and the ability of commercial durum varieties to emerge from deep sowing under dry sowing conditions.