Sowing crops into dry water-repellent soils can increase the severity of repellency and reduce crop performance

Context Dry-sowing, the practice of planting crops before autumn rains, is increasingly used to expedite cropping programs and enable crops to germinate promptly after rainfall. However, growers have reported poor crop emergence on water-repellent soils following this practice, even after subsequent substantial rainfall. Aims To test hypotheses that, compared to wet-sowing, dry-sowing on water-repellent soils disrupts soil physical properties, increases repellency, and reduces crop performance.