Agricultural News
Wheat Freeze injury Seems to be Mostly Cosmetic
Sun, 17 Jan 2010 13:55:08 CST
According to OSU Wheat Specialist Dr. Jeff Edwards, the recent record low temperatures and high winds have many Oklahoma wheat growers, especially those with late-sown wheat, wondering how well their wheat crop weathered the storm. After looking at a few fields in central Oklahoma and speaking with area agronomists, Dr. Edwards says he is comfortable in saying that most Oklahoma wheat fields survived the cold snap with only cosmetic damage. Large wheat is showing the most visual injury symptoms with upper leaves almost completely desiccated.
Smaller wheat does not look as bad as larger wheat at first glance. However on a percentage leaf area basis, small wheat lost more leaf area due to cold injury than larger wheat. The primary issue with latesown wheat, though, remains the lack of sufficient tillering. We will need adequate moisture and temperatures above 50 F to encourage these plants to produce a few tillers before jointing in early March. There is still plenty of time for adequate tillering to occur, but conditions will need to be much more favorable for wheat growth than those of the past few weeks.
Unfortunately, it appears that most of the snow was blown away from wheat fields and this moisture was not moved into the soil profile. It is likely that temperatures were cold enough for long enough to reduce the amount of leaf rust spores present in fields. Hopefully, new spores will not be blown in over the coming months. Right now wheat farmers need to continue to focus on scouting for insects and accurately assessing topdress nitrogen requirements.
This is the lead story for the latest Oklahoma State University Plant and Soil Science Newsletter- we have the full newsletter linked below. Click on the PDF file link below that says "PaSS Newsletter Vol 3 Issue 1."
02850_PaSSNewsletter_Vol_3_Iss_1.pdf
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