Early sowing is critical for achieving high grain yields in wheat, especially under semi-arid environmental conditions where terminal drought limit the season. Fluctuating and sporadic precipitation early in the season could delay sowing or even terminate seedling growth. By applying deep sowing technique farmers have a tool to ensure adequate seed-zone moisture before germination leading to increasing seed establishment. This is often not feasible because of the extensive growing of semi-dwarf wheat containing the gibberellin insensitive genes Reduce height (Rht)-B1b/Rht-D1b which have shorter coleoptiles and low vigor. On the other hand, several alternative dwarfing genes with longer coleoptile have been reported. Our working hypothesis is that introduction of these alternative dwarfing genes into modern durum cultivars can improve emergence and seedling establishment under fluctuating environmental conditions. Emergence tests of durum wheat landraces from across the Mediterranean region, alongside with elite Israeli durum wheat cultivars, showed significant advantage of these pre- “Green Revolution” cultivars to emerge from soil-depth. While the durum Israeli cultivars germinated poorly from 10cm depth, several durum landraces show improved emergence rate, establishment and early vigor. Our results demonstrate the potential of using alternative dwarfing genes to improve wheat seedling survival under fluctuating environmental conditions and enhance yields.