Why would barley prematurely leaf out under the ground?

[poorboy]

I seeded conlon barley 1-2" deep with a bourgault airdrill into very wet heavy clay soil and it has emergence problems. The conlon barley that is 1.5-2" deep has about 5% emerged, 60% prematurely leafed out just below ground level (yellow leaves all wrinked up), and about 35% of the seeds have root hairs and nothing else.

The crop was seeded about June 2 and a rain of about 2" fell about 48 hours after seeding. The higher ground in the field emerged fine and one wing on the drill was only planting about 1-1.5" deep and most of the seeds emerged in these runs. It is occuring on almost every shank on the drill, not just behind the tractor or the airtank tires.

Is conlon barley a poor emerger? The seed tested 99% germ and 97% vigor and the seeds are very plump and large.

In one field I seeded wheat on half of it and Conlon barley on the other half about 2 hours later and the wheat seems to have 80% emergence in the wet clay soils as compared to 5% emergence with the barley, both seeded at the same depth with the drill.

Does barley not tolerate water in the seed row as well as wheat? I am thinking that there was less oxygen at deeper seeding depths. Urea was midrow banded and only 11-52-0-0 placed with the seed.


Compaction does not seem to be the culprit because of the rain right away and it is still wet and not lumpy above the seed.

Just do not understand why it is premature leafing out. Seeds that are rotting or dieing I can understand, but plants with 3" of yellow accordianed leaf that is .5-1" below the soil surface does not seem like a moisture issue to me.

There was no residual chemicals used in the last 3 years and only glyphosate applyied preseeding.

[canaussie]

Do you know if your lot of seed barley was sprayed with glyphosate prior to it being harvested ? All I can think of for now.

[FarmRanger]

The only time I've seen this is when you get a hard packing rain, and hot sun afterward. On clay soils it will make a layer that will actually peel off the surface of the ground, but more importantly it will stop seedling coleoptiles from penetrating the soil surface.
Sometimes pulling a harrow or packer over the land would break that layer up enough to allow the small plants through, but it's probably too late for that now if that is the problem, sorry.

[poorboy]

The barley was not sprayed with roundup in the fall, and I have not retested the germ yet, but it was excellent in December.

I did have a 4" flash flood in 1 hour on this field, and the soil was soggy for days afterwards. Where the higher elevations (4" higher), the barley came up fine. Wheat I had seeded in the same field and same day came up fine.

I figure it was just water logged, with a lack of oxygen at the 2" depth where the seed was at. Not sure if barley waterlogs easier that wheat.

I farm in an area that is normally too dry at seeding and I have never had any experience working with land that is too wet.

Just hoping to get some experience from growers who often work with excessive moisture to get some ideas, so I don't repeat my mistakes if I have another wet year.