Role of Stubble in the Survival of Certain Ice‐Covered Forages1

Abstract

AbstractIce sheets are sporadically responsible for widespread damage to forage plants in temperate latitudes. In search for an effective way of reducing such losses, an experiment was designed to determine whether stubble protruding through the ice sheet offered a certain amount of protection to the covered plants.Potted plants of 22 species and varieties were encased in ice, with and without stubble protruding, and were stored for 60 days at −4C ± IC. Check plants were stored at the same non‐injurious temperature but were not surrounded by ice. Injury to the plants was assessed from the amount of regrowth after 2 weeks in the greenhouse.Leaves of reed canarygrass, Kentucky bluegrass, and three varieties of orchardgrass, protruding through the ice, had marked protective effect on the encased plants. Similarly when stems of alfalfa varieties ‘Dupuits’ and ‘Ladak’ were exposed to the atmosphere, the plants suffered less damage than those which were entirely encased in ice. Meadow foxtail, smooth bromegrass, timothy, and red fescue were not injured by the ice encasement, while all the legumes were damagd in varying degrees.