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[email protected]

We all should. Keeping this data in the weekly diary would help us better predict disease but also help us to understand some of the growth fluctuations that occur every year but we always seem to forget & get frustrated or apply something horrible that ruins the season. LOL

5/22/2007 10:23:22 AM

Puyallup, WA

At 6" depth, I find that the temperature fluctuates 5-6° from day and nightime temperatures so far this Spring.
It took about four days for the temps to rise from 58° to
72° once the hoophouses were covered with plastic.

5/22/2007 12:20:36 PM

Menomonie, WI ([email protected])

Steve do you think...Giant Pumpkin growers see more disease because we raise our soil temps with the plastics and heating cables. Throwing the balance off of good and bad?

5/22/2007 12:44:25 PM

[email protected]

Rapid fluctations are stressful to ALL plants. Cucurbita doesn't like cold soil - PERIOD. Plastic helps when the sun is shining but we might lose so much heat at night as to cause problems. Soil temperature flux is an interesting subject but not what I was thinking about when I started this thread.

I was thinking about all of the recent "why are my leaves yellow?" posts.

You guys are probably onto something though. Wide flux can't be good even for a plant that performs best in hot weather.

Hopefully this will get more people tracking their soil temps. It is an enlightening thing for any gardener. As Stan points out, taking multiple daiky readings is useful. If tracking daily then it should be at the same time every day.

5/22/2007 3:08:58 PM

Picton,ON ([email protected])

Steve

I have always monitored soil temp but never tracked it. I like to see soil temps above 60F in the hoop houses, and I can usually maintain this even at night with black plastic and some suplimental heat in the houses.

5/22/2007 3:59:20 PM

Here's a fun site,,click and check your area,, updated dailey,,fairly accurate I've been using it and checking against my actual readings:
http://www.greencastonline.com/SoilTempMaps.aspx

Don't forget when monitoring temps to get a little deeper to the actual root zone,,the surface temps vary greatly but go to the 8-18" depth and you'll get a more stable and slower to warm reading,,,unless of course you are using cables ;-)

5/22/2007 5:16:40 PM

Phoenix, AZ

I did for months but they were so stable that I just started ignoring the readings. Always 68-72 6" down. Now I am sure they are in the mid 70's but don't care since I am almost done with my season.

5/22/2007 9:00:28 PM

Denver, CO

Tremor,
I have been trying to track two plants, one that has been kept at 80 to 85 soil temp using cables and one that is allowed to flucuate with the ambient temps. It's too soon to say anything of note, except that I will keep you posted as to what happens throught the rest of the season.

5/22/2007 10:08:10 PM

[email protected]

I have to keep my soil warm or I don't even get a 5 ft main by Sept. I use heating cables, 140 feet per plant. 16 inches down and thermostat set at 75. i leave them on all summer. As a point of interest, on thursday of last week, I used a compost thermometer and at 16 inches, the temp was 42 degrees, in 48 hours, when I put in the plants it was 75 degrees. We're working along side an excavation for a new condo building and they're hitting frost at 6 ft.

5/23/2007 12:06:19 AM

Puyallup, WA

Eddy...Sounds like you live next door to "Hell Freezing Over"

5/23/2007 7:59:05 PM