Freezing temperatures across the region on April 15 did significant damage to the area’s grapes and wheat. While many of the grapes have suffered damage, this damage is mainly to the primary buds, secondary buds should push and are expected to make a crop, provided no additional set-backs occur. Grape producers should be monitoring growth and preparing to apply the first of two applications (a split-application) of imidacloprid for the management of piercing and sucking pests.
The extent of damage to wheat is highly dependent on the growth stage and physical condition of a particular field. Wheat which was heading at the time of the freeze is damaged significantly; while wheat in the boot stage may not be damaged much at all. Overall the area’s wheat was not in good condition prior to the freeze due to drought stress, however I have been in a few fields where adequate irrigation has been applied. Drs. Calvin Trostle and Clark Neely prepared a factsheet to address the evaluation of freeze damage in wheat. This factsheet is posted in the Terry-Yoakum IPM Blog at: http://agrilife.org/yoakumterryipm/?p=693. Additional comments can be found here as well: https://wheatfreezeinjury.tamu.edu/.
As planting time approaches growers should have cleaned fields of problem weeds and have some type of residual herbicide applied. See the previous post in this blog titled “Preplant Weed Burndown…” for detailed information regarding burndown options and pre-plant herbicide options for cotton growers.