The life cycle of plants begins with seed germination, followed by the emergence of seedlings. Shallower seeding benefits the emergence of seedlings under favorable soil moisture conditions. However, in semi-arid regions like the loess plateau in China, the farmers have to plant the seeds at a greater depth. This is because the soil surface is dry, but the soil moisture at a greater depth is favorable for seed germination. Tolerance of deepseeding or the capacity to emergence from greater depths is an essential character for grain crops in such conditions. In this study, the deep-seeding tolerance of 5, 082 barley and 1, 214 wheat varieties was evaluated and the super-tolerant varieties were selected. The deep-seed ing tolerance or the percent emergence from a 12cm seeding depth showed a remarkable varietal variation. The deep-seeding tolerance showed significant correlations with the coleoptile length, the first internode length and seed weight. Semi-dwarf varieties were not tolerant. Hulled barley varieties were more tolerant than hull-less varieties. The super-tolerant barley varieties were six-rowed, hulled, large-grained and tall. The super-tolerant wheat varieties were large-grained and tall.

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