Test Plot Update

We are in the second day of an exceptional January thaw.  It came on very quickly and it's expected to end tonight.  The temperature was 58 degrees in Milwaukee under cloudy skies, which was a record for the day.  The previous two weeks were fairly bitter cold, with several overnight lows approaching -10 degrees Fahrenheit.  I even heard that Lake Michigan had significant freezing over.

Anyhow, I was surprised to find four of the 15 heritage wheat varieties in the test plot had significant or total winter kill.  The photos below are taken with the camera pointing east, in order from North to South.

Overview of the plot, from the Northwest corner looking Southeast. (note: the oats in the background are a cover crop that is supposed to winter kill)

The left column, from top to bottom, is Vavilov Turkey Red, Ehmke Turkey Red, and Red Clawson.  In the right column, the top plot, Kharkof, is showing winter kill.  The Krymka, middle, looks good.  The bottom, Beloturka, has significant winter kill.  This is a bit of a puzzle since Beloturka is one of the landraces that Turkey wheat is thought to be selected from.  This test is making a case that the other contender, Krymka, is the actual wheat that Turkey Red comes from.

The left colum, top to bottom, is Red May (USDA), Goldcoin, and Racine.  The right column has Red May from the Spring 2017 planting, and it looks pretty bad.  The middle is Early Noe, and the bottom is Wisconsin No. 2.

This last colum show the three plots at the South end.  The Nebraska No. 6, top, looks OK.  Nebraska No. 60 is in trouble.  The Montana No. 36 at the bottom looks good.

Here is what JA Clark says about Nebraska No. 60 and Nebraska No. 6.

The backup planting of Wisconsin No. 2 looks very good.

The germination test plot also looks good.