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Winter Wheat Seedling Emergence from Deep Sowing Depths

Dep. of Crop and Soil Sciences and USDA-ARS, Johnson Hall 201, Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA 99164

^* Corresponding author (schillw{at}wsu.edu).

Growers in low-precipitation (<300 mm annual) dryland wheatfallow areas of the inland Pacific Northwest need winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) culfivars that emerge from deep sowing depths in dry soils. Stand establishment is the most important factor affecting winter wheat grain yield in this region. Despite poor resistance to disease, modest grain yield potential, and other problems, the outdated soft white winter wheat (SWWW) cultivar Moro is widely sown in these dry areas, due to its excellent emergence ability. All other SWWW caltivars are semidwarfs that carry emergence-impeding Rht₁ or Rht₂ reduced-height genes. From 12 sowing trials at 2 locations over 4 yr, we compared the emergence capability of Moro to (i) 8 SWWW culfivars and (ii) 16 SWWW advanced experimental Mororeplacement lines. Under both wet and dry soil conditions (soil water content in the seed zone ranged from 11 to 19 mm₃ mm_–3), seeds were sown deep, with 110 to 160 mm of soil cover. Moro always emerged fastest and achieved the best final stand compared with the semidwarf cultivars. The advanced experimental lines, which contained either no reduced-height gene or a Rht₁, Rht₂, or Rht₈ reduced-height gene, had superior straw strength, disease resistance, and grain quality compared with Moro. The best-emerging advanced experimental lines had coleoptile lengths >100 mm. Coleoptile length was associated with emergence capability among both cultivars (r₂ = 0.71, P < 0.004) and advanced lines (r₂ = 0.62, P < 0.001). From deep sowing depths in this study: (i) cultivars and advanced lines with Rht₁ and Rht₂ reduced-height genes always emerged poorly compared with Moro; (ii) the Rht₈ reduced-height gene did not hamper emergence to the extent that Rht₁ and Rht₂ did; and (iii) several advanced experimental lines with long coleoptiles equaled or exceeded Moro for emergence.

Received for publication July 7, 1997.

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