Not This Time!

Growers Solution

Oct 28

In Northern Ohio, an unusually dry and warm spring enticed me to drill in a stand of winter wheat a seeding of alfalfa.

For two weeks, overnight temperatures rarely went below freezing, and a perfect stand soon emerged. Then the forecast turned ugly; overnight lows were forecasted to be in the low 20's on one night and even lower-in the upper teens-the next. I was sure I would lose the alfalfa stand.

Five days before the forecast hard freezing temperatures, I sprayed the wheat/alfalfa with 4 gallons of GMS in about an equal amount of water.

The cold came as forecasted, and in the top of the smaller pictures below, one can easily see the encased in ice. A bowl of water was placed in the field near the area the pictures were taken and the ice in the bowl removed and placed next to the picture of the marked area of alfalfa. The ice was 21/2 inches thick, proving this was not a short dip into the upper teens!

None the worse for its experience, the stand survived (see the lower of the smaller pictures below). It is felt that the key to the GMS helping the stand survive was a 2 tenths rainfall the night after spraying, allowing GMS to enter the root zone and get into the tissues of the plant.

Typically, 25 degrees is about as low as alfalfa will survive, and only for a brief time. The bowl of ice shows the length of time the low temperature was.

And so is added another piece of evidence of the value of GMS in helping crops survive freezing temperatures. This time, the farmer won.