Ukraine. Snow cover to protect winter crops from a new frost wave

The soil was frozen to a depth of 19-38 cm in most of Ukraine on March 1-10, being thawed in many southern and southwestern areas. 
 
Frost returned to Ukraine after March 10 (down to -15°С at night). However, snowfalls occurred almost all over the country at the time. On average, Ukraine was covered with 5 to 25 cm of snow as of March 17, reports UkrAgroConsult.

Owing to available snow cover, soil temperature at the tillering node depth of winter wheat did not drop below -3-8°С – this is not critical to well-developed plants of recommended varieties. 
 
On March 12, specialists of research institutions of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences sampled ground monoliths to determine plant viability. According to the North-East Agriculture Institute, no loss of plants was revealed. Further plant tests indicated the sugar content in tillering nodes at 11.8-16.5%. The slight warm-spell entails sugar consumption in tillering nodes, but such figures are not critical to plants in March as they make it possible to withstand temperature drops to -10-120С at the tillering node depth. 
 
In general, winter cereals are rated good and fair. 
 
Some temperature growth in early March made it possible for farmers to begin spring fieldwork. Fertilization of winter crops is underway almost all over the country. This work is already complete on 1768 Th ha (24% of the forecast area) against 4413 Th ha (63%) at the same time in 2017. 
 
UkrAgroConsult