Long coleoptile durum wheat experiment – Riverina 2024

Abstract

Key findings • With adequate soil moisture, sowing durum wheat earlier in the season (27 May) at the shallow depth (4 cm) produced a higher yield compared with either later (17 June) or deeper sowing (12 cm). • When there is not enough soil moisture to sow at a shallower depth, there is a choice between increasing the sowing depth in search of adequate soil moisture or to delay the sowing time and hope for rain to enable shallow sowing. • Results of this experiment demonstrated that increasing the sowing depth to 12 cm and sowing earlier produced a similar yield to delaying sowing by 3 weeks and sowing shallower at 4 cm. • In 2024, the commercial durum variety DBA Vittaroi[PBR] outperformed the new long coleoptile durum breeding line V190245-6 at both sowing depths and times of sowing. • Results in 2024 gave similar results as in 2023 when comparing commercial durum varieties to long coleoptile durum varieties. The new long coleoptile durum line did not demonstrate any advantage in crop establishment or grain yield. In the 2 durum wheat experiments over both years, the use of a new long coleoptile durum line resulted in a yield penalty. • In 2024, there was an average 13–15% grain yield loss in all treatments due to fusarium crown rot (FCR) infection. Neither sowing depth nor time of sowing (TOS) affected the severity of yield loss in 2024.