May 1, 2014
Planting Time and Soil Temperatures
It
is planting season again, time to get another season’s crop up and
growing. The best way of doing that is
with a good start. The first step in
getting any summer crop started well is planting and planning for good soil
temperatures, especially for cotton.
Even though environmental and soil moisture conditions are far below any
desired level, we have been get the annual question again, “What is the soil
temperature today?”
Cotton
gets off to its best start when planted in a recommended 69°F consistent
temperature soil (roughly 64°F bare minimum with a week’s worth of warm weather
on the way). Sorghum requires a 57°F
recommended consistent temperature (roughly 55°F bare minimum with a warming
trend to follow). Corn needs a minimum
of 50°F and no freezing temperatures and a general warming trend following
planting.
So,
where do we stand today following the latest cold front? I took a soil temperature reading at 8:30
this morning at the Halfway Experiment Station in western Hale County. The soil temperature was 52°F in a fairly
dry, conventional till field situation.
With
at least a week’s worth of warmer weather on the way, we should be in good
shape to continue any corn and sorghum planting. I would recommend we wait on those soil
temperatures to raise ten more degrees before cotton is planted. We will continue to post additional soil
temperature readings here early next week.
IF the weather forecast can be believed, gaining ten degrees in soil
temperature might not take but a few days.
Please call or come by with any
questions,
Blayne
Reed
No comments:
Post a Comment