Drenching of Plants

the destruction of winter cereals or other winter crops (for example, perennial grasses) as a consequence of a disturbance of their respiration by the stag-nation of water on fields. Drenching of plants usually occurs in the spring and, less frequently, in winter during prolonged thaws, when water from melted snow in low-lying areas with impermeable soil inundates the plants. The plants, which have not hardened since the fall and are now flooded with water, turn yellow after seven to ten days because of a lack of oxygen (breakdown of chlorophyll) and store up ethyl alcohol in their cells, which causes poisoning, and die after two weeks. It is possible to prevent the drenching of plants by sowing hardy strains, by damming up low-lying areas, by furrowing of crops, and by using ridge sowing and other agrotechnical measures.