Precision Agric (2012) 13:163–180

DOI 10.1007/s11119-011-9235-4

Spatial assessment of the correlation of seeding depth

with emergence and yield of corn

T. Knappenberger • K. Köller

Published online: 3 June 2011

Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011

Abstract Germination conditions are determined by hydraulic, thermal and mechanical

properties of the soils. In heterogeneous fields, the most favourable seeding depth varies
spatially. To investigate the influence of seeding depth on emergence and grain yield of
corn, corn was planted in depths of 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 mm in three experimental
years (2006–2008). The apparent soil electrical conductivity was measured with an EM38.
The apparent electrical conductivity was used as a proxy for soil texture, top-soil thickness,
effective root zone thickness, soil water content and soil structure. The spatial depen-
dencies among emergence, yield and apparent electrical conductivity were considered by
including spatial models into the statistical analysis. The results showed significant cor-
relations of the apparent soil electrical conductivity, of the experimental year, and of the
seeding depth with the emergence of corn. Deeper planted corn (80 or 90 mm) resulted in
more emergence than shallow planted corn (?4.4% in 2006, ?1.2% in 2007 and ?1.5% in
2008). The emergence decreased with increasing apparent soil electrical conductivity
values. The corn grain yield was significantly affected by the soil electrical conductivity,
by emergence and by the experimental year. Increasing apparent soil electrical conduc-
tivity values were correlated with decreasing yield (from 7.5 to 3.4 Mg ha-1 in 2006, from
10.8 to 5.3 Mg ha-1 in 2007 and from 8.4 to 2.9 Mg ha-1 in 2008). Increasing emergence
resulted in increasing yield.

Keywords Corn  Seeding depth  Emergence  Yield  Spatial variability 

Apparent soil electrical conductivity

T. Knappenberger (&)  K. Köller

Institute for Agricultural Engineering, University of Hohenheim,
Garbenstrasse 9, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany
e-mail: tj.knappenberger@wsu.edu
K. Köller
e-mail: koeller@uni-hohenheim.de

Present Address:
T. Knappenberger
Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Washington State University Research and Extension Center,
2606 West Pioneer, Puyallup, WA 98371-4922, USA

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164 Precision Agric (2012) 13:163–180

Introduction

Variation of seeding depth to optimize corn yield is not yet used as a variable in precision
farming. Corn (Zea Mays L.) is usually planted at a depth of 40–60 mm irrespective of
whether soil properties are variable within the field. Heat, water and aggregate size dis-
tribution of the seedbed are considered to be the important factors in germination. A
minimum amount of heat and water is necessary for germination. The quantity of water
necessary for germination depends on the matric potential of the soil surrounding the seed.
A lower matric potential reduces the amount of water uptake but not the number of
germinated seeds unless a minimum matric potential is exceeded (Hadas and Russo 1974).
Dry corn seeds have a matric potential of 2400 MPa and, during germination, the matric
potential increases up to 21 MPa (Shaykewich 1973). The gradient between the matric
potential of soil and seed causes water movement to the seed. The seed absorbs water as
long as the matric potential of the seed is lower than the matric potential of the soil (Hadas
and Stibbe 1973). Decreasing matric potential below a critical value in the soil leads to a
decreasing germination rate (Collis-George and Sands 1959; Hadas 1970; Dasberg and
Mendel 1971; Schneider and Gupta 1985). Hunter and Erickson (1952) determined a
minimum matric potential for corn germination of -1.25 MPa in a loamy soil.
Besides a sufficient matric potential and hydraulic conductivity, heat is necessary for
successful germination. Corn growth is possible when a minimum mean daily temperature
of 10°C is reached (Coffman 1923; Cummins and Parks 1961; Bunting 1978). The tem-
perature optimum for root and shoot growth is between 30 and 34°C (Lehenbauer 1914;
Erickson 1959; Blacklow 1972; Labouriau 1978). Cold stress may occur at temperatures
below 10°C (Miedema 1982), and high daily temperature amplitudes of 30°C and more
reduce emergence of corn (Buckle and Grant 1974). Cold weather and unfavourable soil
conditions can reduce the emergence of corn by 10–15% (Miltner 2003).
Aggregate size distribution of the soil is also a decisive germination factor (Buchner
2003). Seedbed preparation and the implements of the planter are responsible for the
aggregate size distribution of the seedbed horizon. The workability of soils and the fria-
bility of larger clods depend on the soil water content (Dexter and Bird 2001) and optimum
water content for tillage is the water content were a large number of small aggregates are
produced. According to Dexter and Bird (2001), the optimum soil water content for tillage
is at the inflection point of the soil water retention curve. If soils are too wet or too dry,
larger clods are produced. Greater aggregate sizes lower the wetted area at the seed, thus
less contact area leads to reduced soil water flux (Hadas 1970). Murungu et al. (2003)
investigated the influence of matric potential and aggregate size on emergence of corn and
found that bigger aggregates lead to decreased emergence and growth. Delayed and
reduced emergence was found by Nsr and Selles (1995) on soils with high bulk density and
big aggregates.
The type of soil has an effect on germination because the thermal, hydraulic and
mechanical properties of soils vary by the soil type. Additionally, thermal and mechanical
properties, such as specific heat, thermal conductivity and friability are a function of the
soil water content, which usually changes greatly between the soil-atmosphere interface
and the maximum seeding depths. Therefore germination conditions may vary over a range
of seeding depth. In heterogeneous fields, the most favourable seeding depth will therefore
vary spatially.
In previous field trials, it was shown that the emergence of corn plants could be
increased by 2.4–5.4% if the seeding depth was adapted to the soil water content
(Knappenberger and Köller 2006). Molatudi and Mariga (2009) investigated the response

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of emergence and seedling vigour on seed size and planting depth of corn in South Africa.
In their experiments, planting depths deeper than 100 mm led to significantly less emer-
gence. Alessi and Power (1971) analysed the effect of soil temperature and seeding depth
on corn emergence and found that the effect of seeding depths decreased when the soil
temperature was above 10°C. Pommel (1990) determined the effect of seed weight and
planting depth on growth and development of corn seedlings. In his study, he examined
two different seeding depths (20 and 70 mm) and he observed a more rapid use of seed
reserves and a better development of the plants from the deeper seeding depth. Thomason
et al. (2008) varied corn seeding depth (13, 38 and 64 mm) and planting dates and found
significant differences in yield.
Apparent soil electrical conductivity (ECa) has become one of the most frequently used
variables to characterize field variability for application to precision agriculture (Corwin
and Lesch 2003). The ECa of the soil is related to several soil physical properties, such as
moisture content and particle size distribution; wetter soil is more electrically conductive
than dryer soil and coarser soil tends to be less electrically conductive than finer soil
(Inman et al. 2002). Soil electrical conductivity measurements can be affected by a number
of different soil properties including clay content, soil water content, varying depths of
conductive soil layers, temperature, salinity, organic compounds and metals (Geonics
Limited 1997). Clay and soil moisture are major factors influencing the soil electrical
conductivity (King et al. 2001).
The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of different seeding depths on
emergence and grain yield of corn with the purpose of finding optimal seeding depths with
respect to yield. ECa measurements were used here as a co-variable to include spatial
information of the experimental field into the statistical analysis.

Materials and methods

Site description

The investigation was conducted over a three-year period (2006–2008) at the Ihinger Hof,
an experimental station of the University of Hohenheim, Germany. The Ihinger Hof
(48°740 N, 8°930 E) is located southwest of Stuttgart, Germany, about 490 m above sea
level. Generally, the prevailing climatic conditions are temperate cool with an average
annual temperature of 8.5°C and an annual precipitation of 686 mm. The average daily
solar radiation is 10.9 M J m-2. The climatic conditions during the three year period were
characterized by higher than average temperatures and rainfall events in 2006, a dry and
warmer period in the beginning of the growing season 2007 and a wet growing season in
2008 (Fig. 1).
Soil development at the experimental station took place on the geological parent
material of the Lower Keuper, a Triassic formation at the transgression from the pre-
dominantly marine shell limestone formations to predominantly terrestrial sediments of the
Keuper series (Geyer and Gwinner 1991). Due to this intermediate position, the Lower
Keuper is characterized by a high petrographic variability reaching from carbonate-free
and unconsolidated claystones to pure and consolidated carbonatic rocks. Baseline soil
information was available from the State-Soil-Survey (Bundestag 2007). The soil types
according to the FAO-classification (1998) are Haplic Luvisols, Vertic Cambisols and
Stagnic Gleysols from marlstone and claystone weathering.

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Fig. 1 Average weather pattern of the years 2006–2008 at Ihinger Hof research station, located southwest
of Stuttgart, Germany (48°740 N, 8°93 0 E)

The selected field Riech is flat with an average slope of 2.9° towards the south and
covers an area of 10.4 ha. The soil characteristics of the field Riech are variable, because
the predominant shell limestone is partly covered by a loess layer, whose thickness has
been modified by spatially variable soil erosion. Eroded regions have a thin upper soil layer
where the hard rock material is present at shallow depths. The soil textures in the field are
predominantly silty clays and silty clay loams. Texture was determined on a grid of 36 m
by 36 m at three sampling depths (0–0.3, 0.3–0.6 and 0.6–0.9 m, Fig. 2) and analysed
according to the ISO standard 11277 (1998). The average particle size fractions were
16.4% by weight (± 10.8%) for sand, 48.2% (± 10.0%) for silt and 35.3% (± 10.5%) for

Fig. 2 Experimental field Riech at the Ihinger Hof research station, with an overall area of 10.4 ha. The
seeding depths a, b, c, d, e and f in a 36 m by 36 m grid are randomized and correspond to 40, 50, 60, 70, 80,
and 90 mm, respectively. The buffer area was not considered in the yield analysis. All field operations were
performed in the direction indicated by the arrows

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clay. Figure 3 shows an interpolated map of the soil texture at the field. Texture classes
were determined based on the USDA soil texture classification.

Experimental design

Field trials for agronomic purposes are usually set up in small test plots to ensure
homogeneous conditions (Petersen 1996). However, spatial heterogeneity is the factor
which is investigated in precision farming trials. Therefore field trials in precision farming
have to be designed on large heterogeneous fields to ensure representation of spatial
variability.
Based on the operation width of the farm machinery, the experimental field Riech was
divided into square blocks of 36 m by 36 m (Fig. 2). Each square block was divided into
six 36 m by 6 m rectangles. In each square block, the seeding depths (40, 50, 60, 70, 80
and 90 mm) were randomly assigned to the different rectangles (a, b, c, d, e, f) (Fig. 2).
The randomization was repeated in every experimental year.

Technical implementation

The seeding depth of a row drill unit is usually locked by a threaded rod and changed by
hand with a crank. As this is impractical for a big experimental design where seeding depth

Fig. 3 Map of soil texture of the experimental area on field Riech at the Ihinger Hof research station for
three different depths (a 0–0.3 m, b 0.3–0.6 m, c 0.6–0.9 m)

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has to be changed frequently, an electronic control system was developed. The crank and
the threaded rod were replaced with electric drives (Actuator LA36, Linak, Nidda, Ger-
many) and linear encoders (LWG 150, Novotechnik, Ostfildern, Germany) on an Amazone
row drill unit (ED 302, Amazone, Hasbergen, Germany). A control loop was developed
which enabled control of the seeding depth of every single drill unit with an electronic
signal.
A C?? program was written to design experiments at the field level and to facilitate the
randomized design of the trial on the field with the help of a RTK-GPS receiver. Firstly, an
experimental block design with the extent of the field trial was created. A RTK-GPS
receiver was mounted in the middle of the planter directly over the spacing drill units to
acquire the actual position of the seeding coulter. With the RTK-GPS receiver, the current
position was identified in the field. The original GPS positions from the receiver (longitude
and latitude) were transformed into Gauss-Krüger co-ordinates in metres by applying the
seven-parameter transformation (Grossmann 1976). The modified drill unit allowed the
corn seed to be placed in the field at selected depths with continuous passages of the drill
over the entire field.

Agronomic management

Except for the variation of seeding depth, the field was managed according to the farmer’s
usual practice, which slightly differed over the three-year period due to specific environ-
mental conditions and varying prices for input factors. The field was mouldboard ploughed
in autumn after harvesting the previous crop. Seed-bed preparation was done using a
harrow in combination with a land packer. Corn (Zea mays L.) crop variety Companero
was planted on April 26th 2006, April 24th 2007 and May 8th 2008 based on the exper-
imental design described above, using a seeding rate of 10 kernels m-2. Pesticides were
broadcast at relevant stages. The row width of the planter was 0.75 m.

Data collection

For acquisition of the soil electrical conductivity ECa, an EM38 (Geonics Limited,
Mississauga, Canada), which provides a measuring depth of approximately 1.5 m (Corwin
and Lesch 2005), was used in the vertical dipole mode. The instrument was operated on a
wooden sledge (Schutte 2005) to prevent effects of metal objects on the signal. The sledge
was pulled by an all-terrain vehicle which was equipped with a laptop for data acquisition
and with a RTK-GPS receiver. ECa was measured in a grid of 4 m by 2 m and written in
GIS files. As the ECa measurement value is influenced by the soil temperature (King et al.
2001), the soil temperature was measured at a depth of 0.5 m and the temperature con-
version factor derived by Sheets and Hendrickx (1995) was used:
EC25 ¼ ECa  ½0:4470 þ 1:4034  expðT=26:815Þ ð1Þ
where EC25 is the standardized ECa and T is the soil temperature in degree Celsius. Data
was collected on April 16th 2009 at the beginning of the planting time of corn. To correlate
ECa to the texture samples, four surrounding ECa measurement values at the respective
texture sample point on the field (Fig. 2) were identified. Then the mean values from the
four ECa measurement values at every texture sample point were calculated and Pearson’s
correlation (Becker et al. 1988; Rodgers and Nicewander 1988) between ECa and the
texture data was computed.

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To evaluate the influence of the different seeding depths on emergence, the emerged
plants in every 36 m by 6 m rectangle in an area of 10 m2 representing 100 plants was
counted. The emergence was measured on May 17th 2006, May 23rd 2007 and June 11th
2008. Grain corn was harvested on October 23rd 2006, October 19th 2007 and October
20th 2008 using a combine harvester (CR960, New Holland, New Holland, USA) with an
operating width of 6 m, which was equipped with a RTK-GPS-based yield mapping
system. To avoid blending effects, only the yield data of the inner 26 m in every 36 m by
6 m rectangle was considered (Fig. 2). The buffer area was not considered for yield
assessment. To assign the soil electrical conductivity data to the experimental design of
26 m by 6 m rectangles, block kriging was used (Warrick et al. 1986).

Data analysis

For the statistical analysis, the quantitative variable seeding depth was transformed to a
categorical variable with the factors shallow for the seeding depths 40 and 50 mm,
medium for the seeding depths 60 and 70 mm and deep for the seeding depths 80 and
90 mm. The soil electrical conductivity data was analysed as a quantitative variable.
For data analysis, the statistics program (R Development Core Team 2009) was used.
To evaluate the data, ‘‘analysis of co-variances’’ (ANOCA) could be used. However,
this procedure requires independency of the data (Berry and Lindgren 1996). In het-
erogeneous fields, one can expect that the independency is violated and spatial effects
have to be considered (Zuur et al. 2009). Therefore our approach was to build a linear
model and to process analysis of co-variances as described by Crawley (2007). Then,
the residuals of the linear model were checked for spatially dependency, the spatial
correlation was added to the linear model, and the new model was evaluated as to
whether it improved in comparison to the original linear model. First, a linear model to
evaluate the influence of ECa, experimental year and seeding depth on emergence E
was established
 
Eijk ¼ l þ g þ bi þ dj þ gbj þ gdj þ bi dj þ eijk; eijk  N 0; r2 ð2Þ

with i ¼ 1. . .3; j ¼ 1. . .3; k ¼ 1. . .96 where Eijk is the emergence, l is the mean of the
dependent variable, g is ECa, bi is the experimental year, dj is the seeding depth cate-
gory, gbi is the interaction between year and ECa, gdj is the interaction between seeding
depth and ECa, bidj is the interaction between year and seeding depth, and eijk is the
residual. The assumption of a linear model is that the residuals are independently nor-
mally distributed with mean 0 and variance r2 and that residuals of different locations in
the field do not co-vary. In terms of matrices and vectors, the variance of the residuals
eijk can be written as:
2 3 2 2 3
1 0  0 r 0  0
60 1  07 2
6 0 r  0 7
Var½eijk  ¼ r2 I ¼ r2 6 7 6
4 ... ... . . . ... 5 ¼ 4 ... .. . . . 7 ð3Þ
. . .. 5
0 0  1 0 0    r2
The matrix shows that the residuals are uncorrelated (Schabenberger and Pierce 2002).
To inspect the independency, the semi-variance c according to Nielsen and Wendroth
(2003) was calculated

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1 X N
cðhÞ ¼ ðeðxm Þ  eðxm þ hÞÞ2 ð4Þ
2NðhÞ m¼1

where N is the number of considered pairs, h is the distance of the pairs, e(xm) is the m-th
residual e and e(xm ? h) is the residual e with the distance h to the residual. From e(xm), the
experimental semi-variogram, the residuals were checked for spatial correlation. If a
spatial correlation of the measurements was detected, the variance–covariance matrices
r2D according to five semi-variogram models were calculated (exponential, Gaussian,
linear, rational quadratic and spherical) using the NLME package (Pinheiro et al. 2011) in
R. D represents the covariance among the residuals. See Pinheiro and Bates (2000) for
detailed description of the procedure. Those five variance–covariance matrices were then
incorporated as correlation structures into Eq. 2
 
Eijk ¼ l þ g þ bi þ dj þ gbi þ gdj þ bi dj þ eijk; eijk  N 0; r2 D ð5Þ

where the residuals are now distributed as N(0,r2D). Finally, the Akaike Information
Criterion (AIC) for the five models with spatial correlation was computed and used for the
original linear model to determine the fit of the models to the experimental data (Akaike
1974; Crawley 2005). The model with the smallest AIC was selected to analyse the
experimental emergence and yield data.
For analysis of the yield data Y, Eq. 2 was extended by the emergence c and by the
corresponding interactions:
Yijk ¼ l þ g þ bi þ c þ dj þ gbi þ gc þ gdj þ bi c þ bi dj þ cdj þ eijk ;
ð6Þ
with i ¼ 1. . .3; j ¼ 1. . .3; k ¼ 1. . .96 where Yijk is the corn grain yield, l is the mean of
the dependent variable, g is ECa, bi is the experimental year, c is the emergence, dj is the
seeding depth category, gbi is the interaction between year and ECa, gc is the interaction
between ECa and emergence, gdj is the interaction between seeding depth and ECa, bic is
the interaction between year and emergence, bidj is the interaction between year and
seeding depth, cdj is the interaction between emergence and seeding depth, and eijk is the
residual.
The approach to assess the spatial dependencies of the residuals of the yield data was
identical with the procedure of the assessment of the emergence data as described above.

Results

Table 1 shows the Pearson’s correlation coefficients of ECa and texture data. Correlations
coefficients with a modulus greater than 0.2 are significant with P = 0.05.

Emergence

Figure 4 shows the scatter plot of the emergence for different seeding depth categories
over ECa. The differences among the years were more pronounced than the differences
among the seeding depth categories. Table 2 shows the mean values and the standard
deviations of the emergence. The linear model (Eq. 2) was used to statistically analyse the
influence of experimental year and seeding depth category on emergence. The model was
significant with P = 0.01. Table 3 shows the F-values of the model. The values of the

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Table 1 Correlation coefficients

Texture ECa
of the apparent soil electrical
conductivity ECa and soil texture
Sand
0–30 cm -0.06
30–60 cm -0.17
60–90 cm -0.20
Silt
0–30 cm -0.23*
30–60 cm -0.06
60–90 cm -0.05
Clay
0–30 cm 0.23*
30–60 cm 0.24*
Significant correlations with 60–90 cm 0.17
P = 0.05 are marked with *

linear model are denoted with S. There was a significant effect of ECa, experimental year
and seeding depth. The interaction YEAR:SD was close to significance (P = 0.058). ECa
was negatively correlated to emergence: increasing EC25 values led to a decreasing number
of emerged plants.
In the next step, different variance–covariance matrices of the residuals were calculated
with Eq. 5. Then the AIC of every model (Table 4) was computed. The Gaussian spatial
correlation with a nugget of 0.83 and a range of 30.66 m had the smallest AIC value of
5314.35 in comparison to the standard linear model with 5403.42. This means that a model
with a Gaussian correlation of the residuals fits best to the experimental data.
The F-values of the spatially-adjusted model are shown in Table 3 and are denoted with A. In
comparison to the linear model, the interaction YEAR:SD between the experimental year and
the seeding depth became significant with P = 0.01. In every experimental year, the highest
emergence was observed for the deepest seeding depth category SD89 (Fig. 4). In 2006, 4.4%
more emergence was determined when planted at a deep depth compared to shallow depths and
1.3% more emergence was observed when planted at a medium depth compared to shallow

Fig. 4 Scatter plots of apparent electrical conductivity and corn emergence for the experimental years and
seeding depth categories. SD45 is the shallow seeding depth category (40–50 mm), SD67 is the medium
seeding depth category (60–70 mm) and SD89 is the seeding depth category (80–90 mm)

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Table 2 Mean values and standard deviation of the emergence and yield according to the different seeding
depth categories
Seeding depth 2006 2007 2008

Emergence [%]
Shallow (4–5 cm) 73 ± 11 91 ± 6 80 ± 5
Medium(6–7 cm) 77 ± 6 91 ± 6 82 ± 5
Deep (8–9 cm) 76 ± 7 92 ± 5 81 ± 6
Yield [Mg/ha]
Shallow (4–5 cm) 5.2 ± 1.2 7.5 ± 1.9 6.6 ± 1.4
Medium (6–7 cm) 5.2 ± 1.2 7.6 ± 1.8 6.9 ± 1.0
Deep (8–9 cm) 5.3 ± 1.2 7.6 ± 1.7 6.7 ± 1.2

Table 3 Results of the statistical analysis of the emergence and yield

Parameter Emergence Yield

S A S A

l (mean) 133509.0  22088.5  21159.7  247.4 

     
g (EC25) 37.2 13.8 120.6 41.1 
     
b (YEAR) 416.3 497.2 215.9 544.0 
 
c (E) 22.9 6.1 
d (SD) 6.3* 6.7* 0.4 1.2
gb (EC25:YEAR) 0.5 0.6 3.3* 8.6 
gc (EC25:E) 6.4* 5.5*
gd (EC25:SD) 0.6 0.4 0.4 0.4
bc (YEAR:E) 14.5  22.0 
bd (YEAR:SD) 2.2 3.6  0.1 1.2
cd (E:SD) 1.2 3.8*
The table shows the F-values of the statistical analysis. Significant parameters with P = 0.05 are marked
with *, with P = 0.01 are marked with  . S represents the standard linear model, A the model adjusted for
spatial variability

Table 4 The Akaike Informa-

Model Emergence Yield
tion Criterion (AIC) for the
emergence and for the yield
model Control 5403.42 13849.63
Spherical 5399.39 13697.92
Linear 5399.39 13697.92
Rational quadratic 5315.11 13341.60
Control represents the standard Gaussian 5314.35 13697.92
linear model
Exponential 5319.29 13390.38
Bold values indicate P = 0.01

depths. In 2007, 1.2% more emergence was observed when planted at a deep depth compared to
shallow depths and -3.1% less emergence was observed when planted at a medium depth
compared to shallow depths. In 2008, 1.5% more emergence was observed when planted at a
deep depth compared to shallow depths and -1.4% less emergence was observed when planted

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at a medium depth compared to shallow depths. The different experimental years had a greater
effect than the seeding depth categories: In 2007, 18.0% more plants emerged than in 2006 and
in 2008, 3.5% more plants emerged than in 2006.

Grain yield

Figure 5 shows the scatter plot of the yield for different years over ECa. Table 2 shows the
mean values and the standard deviations of the yield. The model in Eq. 6 was used to
statistically analyse the influence of experimental year, emergence and seeding depth
category on the yield. The model was significant with P = 0.01. Table 3 shows the
F-values of the model. There were significant effects of ECa, experimental year, emer-
gence, and the interactions EC25:YEAR, EC25:E, YEAR:E and E:SD.
The different variance–covariance matrices of the residuals were computed and
incorporated into Eq. 5 and subsequently the AIC of every spatial model was calculated
(Table 4). The AIC value of the standard linear model was 13 849.63. The quadratic
model, with a nugget of 0.28 and a range of 33.4 m, had the smallest AIC value of
13 341.60, indicating the model with a quadratic correlation of the residuals fits the
experimental data best.
The F-values of the spatially-adjusted model are shown in Table 3. The interaction
E:SD between emergence and seeding depth became significant and the interaction
EC25:YEAR is significant with P = 0.01 now. Increasing ECa resulted in less yield in every
experimental year: in 2006, the grain corn yield was between 7.5 Mg ha-1 for low ECa and
3.4 Mg ha-1 for high ECa. In 2007, the grain corn yield was between 10.8 Mg ha-1 for
low ECa and 5.3 Mg ha-1 for high ECa. In 2008, the grain corn yield was between
8.4 Mg ha-1 for low ECa and 2.9 Mg ha-1 for high ECa.
Figure 6 shows the scatter plot of the yield for different years versus emergence.
Overall, with an estimation value of 30.9 kg %-1 (kg grain yield per percent emerged
plants), emergence had a positive influence on corn grain yield. Among the different years
and seeding depth categories, the correlation of emergence and yield was different. In
2006, in every seeding depth category, the yield was decreasing with increasing emergence
(-39.95 kg %-1 for SD45, -38.01 kg %-1 for SD67 and -71.48 kg %-1 for SD89). In
2007, yield increased in all seeding depth categories with increasing emergence (34.69 kg
%-1 for SD45, 36.63 kg %-1 for SD67 and 3.16 kg %-1 for SD89).

Fig. 5 Scatter plots of apparent electrical conductivity and grain corn yield for the experimental years

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Fig. 6 Scatter plots of emergence and grain corn yield for the experimental years and seeding depth
categories. SD45 is the shallow seeding depth category (40–50 mm), SD67 is the medium seeding depth
category (60–70 mm) and SD89 is the seeding depth category (80–90 mm)

In 2008, yield increased in the seeding depth categories SD45 and SD67 for increasing
emergence. However, the seeding depth category SD89 showed decreasing yield values for
increasing emergence (20.54 kg %-1 for SD45, 31.48 kg %-1 for SD67 and -1.99 kg %-1
for SD89). The interaction of emergence and seeding depth was significant.

Discussion

Emergence

The emergence of corn was significantly correlated with ECa, seeding depth and experi-
mental year. Medium and deep seeding depths led to significantly higher emergence. This
may be due to a higher water availability and higher soil temperatures during the night. In a
previous experiment (Knappenberger and Köller 2006), we also found emergence to be
affected by the seeding depth. In that study, the seeding depth was varied according to the
volumetric water content of the top 100 mm soil layer: a deep seeding depth was used for
low volumetric water content areas and a shallow seeding depth for high volumetric water
content areas. In sandy parts of the experimental field, the emergence increased through a
deeper seeding depth than the 40 mm seeding depth of the control variant. Molatudi and
Mariga (2009) investigated the corn seeding depths 50, 100, 150 and 200 mm and found
differences in emergence according to the seeding depth but only for 150 and 200 mm. The
50 and 100 mm treatments did not differ but had significantly higher emergence than the
150 and 200 mm treatments. Molatudi and Mariga (2009) used seeding depths down to
200 mm while, in our experiments, the deepest seeding depth was only 90 mm. Molatudi
and Mariga (2009) conducted their experiments in a green house and they watered the
plants every three days. This treatment may have masked differences in soil water content
or soil temperatures among the different seeding depths.
Alessi and Power (1971) investigated in a two-year field survey, four seeding depths
(25, 76, 127 and 178 mm) and their influence on emergence of corn. In one year, most
plants (77%) emerged from a seeding depth of 76 mm, followed by 72% from a depth of
127 mm, 60% from a depth of 178 mm and 39% emerged from a seeding depth of 25 mm.
The differences in emergence were due to dry surface soil and no precipitation during

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emergence, resulting in pronounced differences in soil water content as a function of depth.

In another experimental year, when the soil was wet, the emergence from the different
seeding depths did not differ. From growth chamber experiments, Alessi and Power (1971)
concluded that with temperatures above 10°C, depth of seeding has small influence on rate
and time of emergence. This agrees with our conclusion that the weather is the main factor
affecting emergence and that spatial variation of soil properties only become effective
when the weather conditions are sub-optimal.
Pommel (1990) planted corn at depths of 20 and 70 mm and found that plants from
deeper planted seeds grew faster while the plants from the shallow seeding depth showed
delayed growth. Pommel ascribed this effect to a faster use of seed reserves in the deep
sowing treatments. The seed reserves may have been used faster because of higher water
availability in the deep placement. Itabari et al. (1993) planted corn in eastern Kenya at
three depths (25, 75 and 125 mm) and at three planting dates. They observed the best
performance in germination and emergence at a depth of 75 mm at the first and second
planting date, and at 125 mm at the third planting date. The soil moisture content
decreased from the first to the third planting date and increased with increasing seeding
depths. Itabari et al. (1993) explained their results by more favourable soil moisture and
soil temperature conditions at 75 mm at the first and second planting date, and at 125 mm
at the third planting date, which supports our observation of spatially varying favourable
germination conditions. Gupta et al. (1988) investigated seeding date and depth (25, 50 and
75 mm) and tillage systems and their influence on time to 75% emergence of corn. They
found that deep planting (75 mm) delayed emergence from 2.8 to 18 days due to
decreasing soil temperature. When soil water is not limiting, cooler temperatures were
compensated in no-till tillage systems when planted at 25 mm. The final emergence was
not investigated and information about differences among the three seeding depths was not
given.

Grain yield

The grain corn yield was significantly correlated to ECa, emergence and experimental year.
The seeding depth, on the contrary, did not have significant influence on yield. It was
therefore not possible to derive a favourable seeding depth for optimum yield from the
experimental data. Also it was not possible to demonstrate a favourable seeding depth for
different years as the interaction YEAR:SD was not significant. The germination conditions
may vary due to hydraulic, thermal and mechanical properties of the soil and consequently
the emergence was affected by the seeding depth. However, the amount of yield is reg-
ulated by other agronomic factors like rooting depth and plant available water during the
growing season. Thomason et al. (2008) varied corn seeding depth (13, 38 and 64 mm) and
planting dates (early, normal, late). They determined significant differences in 9 out of 12
treatments, but none of the planting depths consistently resulted in a higher yield. On the
contrary, Zscheischler (1990) reported that a deeper seeding depth of 60–70 mm resulted
in yield loss due to limiting germinating power of corn.
Less emergence does not necessarily lead to lower yield. Muldoon and Daynard (1981)
compared the grain yields of corn with different within-row plant uniformity: the grain
yield of a treatment with only 2/3 of the plants within a row decreased by 2% in com-
parison to a control treatment. Although corn does not tiller, the plants were able to
compensate for varying plant densities by uneven emergence, with the result that yields
were not affected. At least, if emergence changes within a certain range, the yield is not

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affected. This can explain why emergence was significant in the yield model of our study,
but had less influence on the amount of corn grain yield.
Aldrich et al. (1975) suggested a seeding depth for corn between 25 and 125 mm
depending on moisture conditions and soil texture: in wet soils, a depth of 50 mm was
recommended, in dry soils a suitable seeding depth was 75–88 mm in clayey soils,
110–112.5 mm in silty soils and 125 mm in sandy soils. A seeding depth of 25 mm was
recommended for early planting and if water is not limiting. The statements of Aldrich
et al. (1975) support our observation, but the texture on the experimental field that we used
did not vary sufficiently to show a pronounced effect.
The emergence had an overall estimation value of 30.9 kg %-1 but among the exper-
imental years and within the different seeding depth categories, the influence of emergence
on yield was very different. The emergence model showed the greatest emergence for the
deep seeding depth. But the statistical analysis for yield resulted in small estimation values
for the deep seeding depth category SD89 in 2007 and 2008. Contrary to the seeding depth
categories SD45 and SD67: they resulted in less emergence but the model had greater
estimation values for yield in 2007 and 2008. It appears that if the emergence was high (in
seeding depth category SD89), emergence had less influence on yield. However, if emer-
gence was lower (in seeding depth category SD45 and SD67), the influence on yield was
bigger. The results from the statistical analysis for 2006 do not make sense, because less
emergence cannot result in more yield. The reason for those results is due to the general
least square regression which was used in this analysis to find a mean value for all of the
experimental years. If the data of 2006 are analysed separately, emergence is not a sig-
nificant factor in the yield model but the estimated values would be positive (24.07 kg %-1
for SD45, 30.93 kg %-1 for SD67 and 29.76 kg %-1 for SD89).

Apparent soil electrical conductivity measurements

Corwin et al. (2003) found a quadratic relationship between cotton yield and apparent soil
electrical conductivity. The smallest cotton yield was found at positions with low ECa.
Mueller et al. (2003) computed a correlation coefficient of r2 = 0.75 between ECa and clay
content. These results are contrary to our results. As ECa can be influenced by a large
number of site factors (Geonics Limited 1997), we conclude that other factors are deter-
mining the ECa measurement values and the grain corn yield in those experiments. Kitchen
et al. (1999) related the various yield data to ECa and depth to claypan of different fields in
north-central Missouri: their yield also decreased with increasing ECa measurements and
they ascribed these patterns to spatial variation of topsoil thickness. Saey et al. (2009)
determined the depth to the interface between two contrasting soil layers with the aid of
ECa measurements. Sudduth et al. (2001) measured ECa values with decreasing topsoil
depth. In shallow and moderate topsoil areas, with higher ECa values, subsoil water was
depleted during the growing season. Compared with a soil with deeper topsoil thickness, a
shallow topsoil has less plant-available water capacity (Thompson et al. 1991). ECa
measurements are appropriate to account for differences in depth to clay layers and higher
ECa measurements were acquired at positions with shallow depth to a clay layer (Saey
et al. 2008). As the correlation between the texture data and the ECa measurements in this
study was poor (Table 1), the variation of ECa values may be due to depth differences to
clay horizons or due to differences in topsoil depth. Topsoil thickness is a measure of the
effective rooting zone for crop plants (Kitchen et al. 1999) and therefore such factors may
be responsible for the spatial yield variation in our experiments. In this study, only ECa
measurements acquired in the vertical mode were available. A second data set with

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measurements in the horizontal mode might have given better correlations with top soil
properties because the signal in that mode has a stronger response to top soil layers
(McNeill 1980). Although the ECa measurements had a low correlation with the texture
data, we decided to use them for statistical analysis because they describe the spatial
variability of the experimental field on a very dense grid of 4 m by 2 m. We used the ECa
data as a proxy parameter for soil texture, top soil thickness, effective root zone thickness,
soil water content and soil structure.
As ECa measurements were only made at one date, it cannot be stated that the ECa data
will remain constant for the different experimental years. However, Sudduth et al. (2001)
made multiple ECa measurements during a five-year period (April 1994, November 1997,
April 1999) and they found high correlations between the measuring dates. It may be
concluded from their results that ECa measurement patterns can be considered as stable
over a period of several years, especially if the ECa measurements were considered at the
same time of the year.

Conclusions

In a three-year field experiment in a temperate cold climate region, the impact of changing
seeding depths on emergence and yield of corn was investigated. Emergence was found to
be affected by seeding depth, i.e., deeper seeding resulted in greater emergence. The
different seeding depths, however, did not directly affect corn grain yield, as plants
compensated for reduced stand density by higher per plant corn yield. Nonetheless, if more
plants emerge from a deeper seeding depth, it will ultimately be beneficial for the amount
of yield because the plants’ ability to compensate for reduced stand density is limited to a
certain range.
ECa measurements were used as a proxy for soil heterogeneity. There were significant
correlations between ECa and emergence as well as ECa and yield. However, there was no
significant interaction between seeding depth and ECa with respect to emergence and yield.
Consequently, seeding depth variation could not be associated with the spatial heteroge-
neity derived from ECa measurements only.
Although a deeper seeding depth was, overall, more beneficial for corn growth in this
study, the data do not support a measureable benefit of variable seeding depth with respect
to overall yield on the scale of the field plot. This does not preclude possible benefits of
variable seeding depth for larger fields and different climatic conditions.

Acknowledgments We thank the Amazone company and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research
for funding this study.

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