Over the last decade, the share of winter crops has increased in Estonia, and the concern that plants sown in autumn have died by spring worries many. According to METK, winter fruits prepare themselves quite well for extreme conditions: they go through a hardening period in autumn, during which various physiological and biochemical processes take place in the plant. Thanks to this, plants are ready to tolerate cold periods, but cold tolerance varies depending on the species. Canadian researchers Fowler and Limin pointed out that winter rye can withstand the most intense cold, i.e. -34 degrees. This is followed by winter wheat, winter wheat, durum wheat, winter barley and winter oats with -25, -24, -20, -19 and -17 degrees respectively.
Certainly cold tolerance also depends on the hardening conditions, the supply of nutrients to the plant, the duration of the cold period, the development phase of the plant and, above all, the variety, the thickness of the snow cover and the duration of the period Freddo. The snow cover on the field protects the plant from the effects of the cold. Furthermore, it must be taken into account that when the air is more than twenty degrees below zero, the ground is still quite warm. Especially when there’s a thick, soft blanket of snow to protect you. Here it is good to know that the germinative node of cereals, from which new shoots and roots develop, is located a few centimeters deep in the soil. And if the shoot node survives, the plant also has life expectancy. In December and January the plants are still strong and under the influence of hardening, and the extremes are easier to tolerate. Towards spring the plants weaken and the cold can do more damage.
METK researchers studied the conditions of some winter crops at the test centers in Jõgeva, Kuusiku and Viljandi. For this purpose, on January 11, some plants were taken out of the frozen ground, slowly thawed and brought to grow in a warm room. Winter wheat showed signs of life in all three locations, and winter rapeseed also showed signs of life in Kuusiku and Viljandi. This was especially good news for winter rapeseed, because winter rapeseed is more sensitive to frost than winter rapeseed. In winter canola, the growth mound remains below the soil surface, whereas in canola it is above the soil surface and therefore more sensitive to temperature.
After thawing, the Jõgeval ‘Perenaise’ winter wheat plants were a beautiful green and fresh green shoots appeared instead of cut leaves, proving that the plant was alive. Jõgeva had a 5-10cm layer of snow on top for protection. If there had been less snow in other parts of Estonia during the cold season, this could have damaged the leaves or leaf tips of the plant, but if the shoot node is alive, the plant will recover.
2024-01-20 17:54:00
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