Yet another cold snap moved through the area this past weekend and several had questions concerning the possibility of this event to damage our wheat crop.  I’ve pasted a copy of the NOAA observed low temperatures throughout most of Tennessee’s wheat producing areas, and as you can see from the image temperatures fell very close to dangerous levels.  Additionally, frost was reported in several areas.

Much of our wheat was flowering at the time of the snap.  Many of the cells associated with reproductive growth must rapidly increase in size during this growth stage; this is one reason why our sensitivity to cold temperatures is lowest during heading/flowering.  Damage at this stage usually results in floret sterility, white awns or spikes, damage to stems and occasionally damage to leaves.

Still, in order to damage these tissues, we typically must fall below freezing for a few hours; most reports suggest temperatures need to fall below 30F at these stages for two consecutive hours before substantial damage will occur.    Based on the temperatures reported by NOAA, I would not expect widespread damage to our wheat crop.