Effects of seed deterioration and seed-bed environment on emergence and yield of spring-sown barley

Seedling emergence from barley seeds, deteriorated by storage at supra-optimal moisture contents and temperatures, was adversely affected by sowing early in spring when soil temperatures were low, and by sowing into wet seed beds. There were significant interactions between seed lots of varying levels of deterioration and seed bed condition, because the more severely deteriorated lots emerged proportionately less well than the control, non-deteriorated lots. The yield results also showed significant interactions between seed lots and seed-bed condition because plants from deteriorated seeds in low populations resulting from partial emergence failure were unable to compensate and produce plot yields similar to those of higher populations.