Conclusion
Dry sown wheat established as well as and yielded as well as wheat sown on the break at a normal seeding depth of 50mm.
Wheat sown at 69mm established only 60% of the plants at normal depth but yielded just as well, however, wheat sown at 103mm established very poorly and yielded only from 56% to 80% of that sown at 50mm.
The best variety and the least sensitive to deep sowing in this trial was the late maturing Magenta.
The lowest yield variety was the early maturing Emu Rock.
Coleoptile length was only loosely related to sensitivity to seeding depth.
Acknowledgements
Technical support was provided by Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia's Geraldton Research Facility and Laurie Maiolo.
Thanks also to Christine Zaicou and Mohammad Amjad, who made helpful comments on the work.
This trial was funded by Grains Research and Development Corporation as part of project DAW218 Wheat agronomy - building system profitability in the western region.