The continued arctic conditions have many wonder whether the earlier planted wheat and barley have a snowball’s chance in hell to produce a healthy seedling and stand? Wheat, barley and oats do not germinate until the soil temperatures reach 40^oF. The germination process starts with the uptake of water, breaking the dormancy and starting the development of the sprout. Once the dormancy is broken the energy stored in the seed is used for the growth and development as well as respiration (basically maintenance). If the temperatures are low or even freezing the growth and development of young seedling slows down or even stops. However, respiration continues albeit at a lower rate and continues to deplete the energy stored in the seed. This will eventually decrease the vigor of the seed and may prevent the sprouted seed to produce a healthy seedling.

With the freezing temperatures the first concerns was whether this would kill the sprouted seed. Reports from the literature indicate that sprouted wheat and young seedling would likely survive temperatures in the low twenties. A quick check of the color of radicle (first root) and coleoptile (first leaf) - a white and firm radicle and coleoptile indicate that the sprout is not damaged by frost after the seed has been allowed to thaw out - on the sprouted wheat indicated that in most if not all cases the wheat and barley had survived the cold snap. A quick test to determine viability of seed is to dig up seed and bring it home, place it between moist paper towels, and keep it at room temperature. If the seed is viable the sprouts should start to grow within 24 hours.

The precipitation of the last few days however has created an additional concern. The excess of snow and rain has resulted in fields that are at or above field capacity and in some cases water is standing in the field. This creates anaerobic conditions that will further stress the sprouted wheat and barley and make it more susceptible to root rot and seed decay by fungi. This will likely result in a further reduction of stand.

So when do you need to replant a poor stand? If we assume you wanted a stand of 1,300,000 plants per acre. That requires at least 30 plants per square foot. Replanting costs must be recovered from a later maturing crop that has a lower yield potential than original crop. Plus, replanting uses extra moisture as a function of soil disturbance.

Use the following guidelines to determine whether replanting is worthwhile:

1. If reduced stand is uniform (no big skips or holes) keep stands of 15 plants per square foot.
2. If skips are large (3 to 6 ft.), or holes are 4 to 6 feet in diameter and stand is 18 plants per square foot or less, then replant  if moisture is adequate.
3. After June 1 in northern Minnesota, and May 15 in southern Minnesota, a replant decision should be to a crop other than  wheat or barley since yields are reduced by about 50% when planting after these dates compared to normal planting dates.