yesterday it was sunny and in the 40s...last night there was a dusting of snow...and this morning it's in the upper 20s ( 28 degrees according to npr at about nine when i was approaching campus )...the intermediate wheat grass ( middle photo ) is in no doubt about the season temperature non-withstanding and it is full blown dormancy...actually it has been since late november...the winter wheat is more cold hardy than the wheat grass but i am inclined to think that it should be dormant as well...certainly the winter wheat i grew last year was by this time...but it was under a pile of snow form mid december until late february or early march...both the wheat on campus ( top photo ) and the whaet in my back yard ( bottom ) are still la vibrant green when brown is the seasonal color...there is usually a ten percent die back of winter wheat due to cold which is more than made up for by the rhyzomatic spread of the wheat in the spring ( i planted less than 100 plants on campus last year and harvested 383 )but i am afraid that if there is a significant cold spell without an insulating snow cover the die back may make a spring crop a much reduced affair...peculiar weather this january...there is usually what is locally called ( and it may not be just local ) a january thaw, but mild januarys are another matter...a mild december had me thinking we might have a winter back-loaded with ice and snow...now i'm not sure...it's true that february isn't generally a less wintery month than january around here so the possibility of a true winter still exisits...but i'm beginning to have my doubts.
