Too much rain hit parts of Ohio last week with the remnants of tropical storm Erin.

In some fields, the plants were totally covered, so these will be lost. For other fields, the combination of the fields being very dry (so they could absorb the moisture) combined with our excellent drainage systems, the water moved away quite quickly. From previous studies at The Ohio State University, by Dr. Tara VanToai’s group has demonstrated that it takes 3-days of saturated conditions before much root injury takes place.

After the 3-days, the carbon dioxide builds up in the soil creating anaerobic conditions (no oxygen) and then root injury occurs. When you walk into the fields you will be able to smell when this occurred. It smells like a swamp. The amount of injury to the crop and impact on yield is going to be dependent on several factors: the length of time the field was flooded, the health of the crop before flooding; and the growth stage. If the plants were in earlier reproductive phases they will be impacted the most while other later growth stages will most likely show little damage.