Frost Damage

With an unusually warm April is seems strange to be talking about frost damage in the second week of May, however here we are. Some of you may have experienced some localized frost damage in corn fields on Sunday to Monday night. If you have recently scouted your emerged corn you may have found water soaked leaves that are unusually dark in color or brown leaves depending on how soon after the frost you may have discovered the corn. These are typical symptoms of frosted corn. If you're wondering what will happen now the best answer is just wait. Prior to making any replant decisions allow a few days to a week for the corn to recover from the frost damage. At the stages that most of our corn is at (emergence-V4) we should be ok. Due to the lack of prolonged cold in our area you will likely find any frost damage sporadic at best with little to no pattern in the field. Low lying fields and areas of fields are more likely to have been damaged as well as fields no-tilled with substantial cover. Again, corn is very resilient at this point in time so give it a little while before decisions are made to replant. I would be very surprised if we have any stands that warrant a replant for frost damage.

Soybeans, on the other hand, are less resilient to frost. I am not aware of any beans that were up and damaged by frost, however if temperatures hold below 30 degrees for any extended period of time beans will die. Again, I would be surprised if we have this type of damage, however localized damage may have occurred in low lying area and could warrant a quick check if you know you had some emerged beans.