Message Board - Cricket: Soil temps

I had a sneaky little probe on Saturday, and to my amazement the reading was 9.2 degrees, I say amazed because on the Sunday before, the 9th Jan 2011 it only registered 2.1 degrees. Just shows what a few mild days with the temperatures getting into double figures can do. No wonder the sward looked much healthier in colour.
Grass seed that had been sown on a 3mrt wide stretch of relayed drainage pipe work in november was a pinky/green carpet this morning.
Mother nature never ceases to amaze me.

whereabouts are you Boo Boo

9.2 degrees at this time of year ??
Where the heck are you ?

Last time I looked at my square I was -2 at 100mm. I wouldn't expect to see anything much above +2 deg (at the most) in Jan.

Same old story --- how longs yours---- how deep do you go!!!!
Patience we are not used to these cold winters. March is not far away.

Aberdeen - Took mine today and at 100mm depth it was 1.1 Centigrade.

Well you know what they say " it may be a small probe to you but..,,,"

I think I'll get mine out tomorrow

Two old men sat in deckchairs, one says to the other " Its nice out today isnt it?"
The other one replies...............

With apologies to the late great Eric Morecombe

Bahama's perhaps?

Last I knew Boo Boo was at Jellystone Park with Yogi and they had geysers there to warm things up !!!!!

hay hay hay Smarter than the average bear.
Classic

Lowering the tone somewhat, are we really sure where the probe was inserted?

Sorry to lower it further, but if Boo boo found a hole measuring 9.2 degrees, it Must have been inserted!!!!!!

Back to my earlier post, it was too bloody cold to go and measure today. ground was white over with frost at 1.45pm.

There are daises growing on my nursery ground outfield, yet it was so cold even my dog hid in the shed for the day, also a few folk I have told me there are daffodils starting to sprout. the worlds gone mad I tell you!

Yesterday I noticed the rhubarb has started to sprout, the daffs are coming up but the soil temperature on the putting lawn was 3 degrees! We hand mowed the greens as is was the first time for 2 months that they were dry enough or not frozen or snow covered. Over a box full of grass per green came off. Now that is mad!

Chris

And some still insist that the grass does not grow in winter.
Had a bowling green mowed this last week at ten mill. As above not mown for a couple of months, five box fulls.
I have had very similar readings as boo boo, eighty miles apart by road, but same latitude. In fact he only measured his because i rang him with regard to my readings. I fertilised my square a couple of weeks ago, the grass will not grow when it is to cold, but the food needs to be in place ready for the plant when these little mild spells come around. Look at all the yellow stressed out cricket squares you see during the winter, all the posts on here with regard to disease. I am not talking about forcing the grass on, applying autumn/winter formulations keeps the grass ticking over when it needs to. I very rarely suffer disease, occasional red thread. Never let the square get long, have the sharp rotary ready to go at a moments notice and feed with autumn/winter approx every six/eight weeks.
Ken may not see his square for six weeks so a different regime will apply, but for most of us south of the border life goes on, its just a little slower.

Finally got round to it at lunchtime
4.5c (40.0f) down to 4 inches 'ere' in South Shropshire.

Just measured temps on my squares . 3.3 degrees cent at four inches. 0 at air temp but dry enough on top to put light rotary over .
Oh no , just heard we are expecting snow !

I put down some seed on our 4th team square in last week of November. Looked at it just after New Year when the ground still had heavy frost in it and the seed had come through quite strongly. As it has been under snow for weeks, I was and still am amazed. This is in SE.

Here's a question for all you lads n lasses with thermometers. At what temperature will the plant stop taking up nutrients and at what temperature will it start again.
I ask this 'cause I only have enough fert' left to feed one more time and want it to go no when it will benefit the plant and not just leach through the root zone.
I want to wait later, this year, because the pebble problem has forced me to re-think P S R which I want to do after scarifying out some more pebbles.

If, as some of you have said, you have temp's of 4 degrees C will the plant be using nutrients or still be dormant??

Chris

My understanding - and that is what it is! - is that a soil temperature above 5 degrees Centigrade is desirable for fertilising.

Today a decrease since Wednesdays reading, only 1.5C down to 100mm, a drop of 3C.

Just shows how quickly the soil reacts to air temp change. Not as long as i used to think. The soil can and does warm up quite quickly.

All I know is today was a painfully cold day for sitting on a tractor, I still hurt!. I think another cold snap must be coming

My squares are looking a little hungry at the moment. I'm not making any knee jerk reactions though... weather is to unpredictable at the moment as it could warm up nicely, or we could get nailed with another batch of snow/frost again. I'll be leaving mine well alone for the moment... squares will still be here in a couple of weeks, and what's going on with the weather will be much clearer then.

Mike