If you have a pesticide applicator’s license from the Texas Department of Agriculture and you need CEUs then mark your calendars for February 16, 2024.
Comanche County CEU Program
16 February 2024 DeLeon City Auditorium
125 South Texas St. DeLeon, TX
8:30 Registration
9:00-9:55 “Auxin Training”
1-hour L&R
Dr. Scott Nolte, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Weed Specialist
10:00-10:55 “Crop Scouting Fundamentals for Corn and Cotton”
1-hour IPM
Tyler Mays, Texas A&M AgriLife IPM Agent
11:00-11:55 “Technologies for Weed and pest Control in Sorghum”
1-hour IPM
Dr. Ronnie Schnell, Texas A&M AgriLife Cropping Systems Specialist
12:00-12:50 Lunch
1:00-1:55 “Organic Peanut and Cotton Production Opportunities, Pesticide Requirements, and Rules”
1-hour L&R
Bob Whitney, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Organic Program Specialist
2:00-2:55 “TDA Laws and Regulations”
1-hour L&R
Jason Jones, Texas Department of Agriculture
3:00 Evaluation and Adjourn
5 Total CEU’s: 3 L&R, 2 IPM.
Lunch will be provided, but there will be a $50.00 fee for the program. RSVP by February 13th by calling 325-646-0386
Harsh Freezing Conditions and Current Texas Crops—January 2024
Damage depends on crop susceptibility and degree/duration of freeze. Wheat is probably OK.
A part of Soil & Crops Sciences Extension is to keep tabs on the variety of Texas crops growing in current conditions—winter and summer—to understand crop adaptation (and varieties & hybrids within crops) to weather extremes. The current exceptional cold snap has a potential impact on any crops currently in the ground in Texas.
Potential Crop Freeze Damage Depends on Several Factors
- The degree of cold temperatures, that is, how cold it gets. Temperatures are predicted in the mid-20s in the Texas Winter Garden west and south of San Antonio. Possibly 30°F in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. In these two areas there is vegetable or fruit production that overlaps with the cold temperatures. Winter crops have a wide range of cold tolerance. Some might be injured near 30°F, others can tolerate the teens just fine.
- The duration of cold temperatures, that is, how long it stays cold. Some of Central Texas and even the Winter Garden area will remain below freezing during the day for two and even three days. This allows colder temperatures to penetrate deep into any crop canopy and into the soil around a possible growing point, depending on the crop.
- General crop susceptibility to freezing conditions. This in my view has three components.
- Crops vary in their cold tolerance. Many wheat varieties, for example, are mostly tolerant of temperatures below 0°F. But a specialty crop like carinata (an oilseed Brassica, similar to canola) may not tolerate temperatures below 27°F. The cold temperatures that wheat and rye can withstand are often injurious to oats. This is a good example of why fall-planted oats are less common in north Texas and rare in the Texas High Plains. Varietal differences also manifest under cold conditions
- Stage of growth. Crops have a wide variety of growth stages. Winter crops in the vegetative growth stage are much more tolerant of cold and freezing conditions. For example, a regionally adapted wheat variety in vegetative growth can withstand temperatures to 0°F or less. But the same variety in reproductive growth at boot stage, heading, especially flowering (32°F for two hours is when potential damaging injury can occur), and then grain fill is much more susceptible to injury. A caveat to stage of growth is some plants, like alfalfa and the Brassicas (winter canola, carinata, rapeseed, crambe, etc.) must establish their “crown” after planting and before freezing conditions. This usually requires planting 5 to 6 weeks before your region’s first average 32°F. Once the crown is established plants are much more tolerant of cold and freeze.
- Location of the plant growing point. The growing point for many crops in the vegetative stage like wheat, oats, and canola is at or below ground level. This provides protection from cold and freeze. The above-ground vegetation may be burned by freezing conditions, but as long as this low-set growing point is OK, the
plant will recover (Fig. 3). (Corn and grain sorghum also have vegetative growing points below ground level, which makes them less susceptible to a late spring freeze compared to cotton or soybean or cowpeas.) Later in the growth cycle for wheat and canola, the growing point in reproductive growth moves above the soil surface and becomes exposed to cold and freeze. Then the degree and duration of freeze will determine potential freeze damage.
Assessing Freeze Damage Often Requires a Waiting Period
A massive wipeout freeze is easy to see. But often the actual freeze damage is more subtle. It may require at least seven days after the freeze event and the return of typical temperatures. Then we examine the growing points—vegetative or reproductive, depending on stage of growth—to ascertain the injury and ability of crop plants to compensate and recover.
In many crops, freeze injury is often never as bad as it looks. But then sometimes it is, like I expect on 2023-2024 AgriLife carinata trials at College Station, Stiles Farm (near Thrall), and McGregor. I would imagine these crops will be dead to the ground with no chance of recovery. This is why at McGregor and Stiles we covered experimental research in carinata with plastic sheeting in the hopes we can have some survival (Fig. 1). Otherwise, if all plants are 100% dead, we will have nothing in the spring to evaluate days to flowering, growth, etc.
Wheat & Small Grains Freeze Injury Potential
For wheat at this time of year into early February the most common concern about freeze injury is the browning and singeing of foliage, especially leaf tips. I remind Texas wheat growers who express this concern that the wheat variety they are growing likely grows several hundred miles to the north, even into Kansas, where it is much colder. They will be fine. Wheat in reproductive growth (after jointing, boot stage, heading, flowering and grain fill) is a much different scenario. In these stages the wheat is susceptible to a spring freeze.
Assessing Freeze Injury on Lesser Winter Agronomic and Vegetable Crops
Much less information is known on crops like clovers, Brassicas, leafy greens, and vegetables grown in the winter. Assessing any of these crops may be uncertain. But knowledge of stage of growth and the location of the growing point will help assess damage potential. Those with a long history of experience with specific crops probably have a good understanding of the damage potential. If clientele is concerned about crop damage from the January 13-17 freeze in Texas, AgriLife Extension can help assess possible damage. Many of us have been here before. Though assessing freeze damage has been one of the most challenging tasks in my career, especially when farmers need to know what to do, there is shared knowledge in Extension to help assess freeze damage whenever and wherever it occurs.