In faba beans and peas, on May 30, 23025 on both sides of Riding Mountain Park, we found plants with what we are calling “triplets” coming from a single seed.
It wasn’t variety, seed treatment, pre emerge chemical or even crop specific. They were randomly scattered in the field and not in patches.
The first shoot tip some how got injured, we’re thinking it was the drastic temperature swings.
Grandview weather station reported a May 7 low of -3.7 °C and May 8 max temp of +30.5 °C, with a May 17 high of only 4 °C and a low of 0.3 °C.
Shoal Lake weather station reported a May 7 low of -3.3°C and a May 8 high temperature of +29.4°C, with a May 17 high of only 4°C and a low of -0.3°C.
Injury could be from frost, animal foraging, insect damage and maybe even hot soil….
There was a disruption to the apical dominance, which means the control the main shoot had over the other shoots was lost or weakened. The natural balance of auxin (a plant hormone produced in the shoot tip that gets transported down the stem) in the plant was disrupted and that triggered a response from the other growing points to take over and continue growing.
These plants were late emerging and leaves appeared a bit crispy, but you could only tell for sure by digging them and looking at the seed.