Our
field looks almost exactly like it did earlier in the week. It is
very windy, cloudy, and the temperatures are below normal (I’m
wearing a coat!). That’s perfect weather for grain-filling–
upper 60s and low 70s. But it’s not too good for the other
crops, such as corn and soybean that are trying to grow. I don’t
think it is suppose to freeze! You can see how wavy the wheat
appears– that’s the wind blowing the heads around.
The
plants in the row are looking good. They are about 30 inches tall
now. The leaves are still healthy and that’s rather amazing for
this time of year.
This
head appears to be a little smaller than the heads we saw last
year. Do you see the whitish spikelet at the tip of this head
and on the heads in the background? I bet you are wondering why
this is happening, aren’t you? Well, I think the hot weather we
had recently burned those spikelets. So, there won’t be any
grain in those florets of those spikelets. That is not unusual
when we have very high temperatures like we had last week. I’m
actually surprised our field looks as good as it does.
This
kernel, which is about 15 days old, has changed from a
silverish-green color that it had a couple days ago to a nice,
green color now. And it appears the kernel is even more plump. I
would say this kernel is in Feekes stage 11.1 (milk stage or milky
ripe). We are about half-way through the grain-filling process
now. This is the period of highest water demand for the wheat.
