How cold can you go? Ultra – early seeding of CWRS wheat in cold soils

Canadian Western Red Spring wheat (Triticum aestivum) is the most common wheat grown in Alberta making up about 60% of all wheat grown in the province. As this is such an important crop, optimizing the yield while facing varying growing season lengths can be a challenge. The growing season in southern Alberta is significantly longer than that of the northern portion of the province; if producers are able to seed into cold soils then the growing season length may be virtually increased for the producers that require it. The objective of this study is to determine the cultivar and soil temperature at planting that will lead to the highest yield in each study location, as these locations represent growing regions across Alberta and the prairies.

In this study ten cultivars of CWRS were planted at both 2°C and 8°C soil temperatures resulting in 20 treatments per replicate; there were three replicates at each of the four sites across Alberta. The trials were set up in a split-plot design with the main plot containing the temperature treatment and the cultivars as subplots. During the growing season, multiple points of data were collected: plant emergence date and counts, Haun scale assessments, vigor ratings, maturity dates and counts, as well as yield and dockage. The results of this study indicate that the yield of CWRS may be increased under the cold soil seeding treatment in certain growing regions.