What would I use Soil temp/wetness for in my garden?

[smorris]

OK, I'll admit, I like toys. I get stuff I don't need all the time. In the Davis news, they did the article on my weather station, and mentioned that I might want to get the soil moisture station (I know, they want to sell stuff.)

Why would I want one, and what would it do for me? I'd use it in the raised beds of our veggie gardens (which we plan to expand again in the spring.) We have sandy soil (we are on an ancient glacial beach) and the gardens have lots of compost, manure, and peat moss added. I've gone by the old "make a ball of dirt" method to see if it is ready to work in the spring. We get plentiful rain in the spring, and when it seems dry we water with a sprinkler and check how much by what's landed in a bucket in the garden. Usually when the soil's dry enough to work, the chances for frost are done, so we can plant.

How would I use soil moisture and temperature to supplement or enhance our gardening?

Thanks,
Steve

[d_l]

My climate isn't the same as yours, but I use the leaf/soil/temp station primarily to record misty rains (less than 0.01 inch rains), dew, and frosts on a leaf sensor.  There is a temperature sensor wired underneath it to record the nightly "radiation" temperature (this is usually much colder than the air temperature).  When that temperature and the dew point coincide, then there is is usually dew or frost.

I have a temperature sensor buried at 4 inches which tells me if the soil is warm enough to chance turning on the sprinkler system this dry winter.  It also tells me if any hand watering would soak in properly.  I'll also use it to estimate when plants should green up this spring.

If you buy a leaf/soil/temp station, then you should consider getting an ag/turf module for WL to track degree days which can help you predict plant and pest development.  The degree days counter of the ag/turf module also can be used without the leaf/soil/temp station.

[Skywatch]

Well the soil moisture sensors can tell you how deep your irrigation is. I have clay/sandy soil. I originally thought the soil was dry untill i installed my moisture sensors. And also soil temperature is important. If your soil is too cold or too warm you may wind up killing plants rather than doing something benificial for them. Not to say you will do that but it's always something to be cautious about. Leaf wetness can give you an idea of how long the leaves stay wet. Wet leaves can promote diseases and pests but wet leaves can also do other harm. Like on a summer day wet leaves can cause the leaves to blister. Believe me, for your situation you might find the data valuable. And if you were to get the Agriculture/turf management module for WeatherLink that would be the icing on the cake. I think it's is a must for avid gardeners. What you can learn will supprize you.

[smorris]

Thanks! Leaf wetness can tell me how long the leaves stay wet. And I realize wet leaves promote decease and pests. But I can't do anything about it, so knowing does't help. I like Dale's description of knowing radiation temp. We have a lot of dew in the mornings.

I don't use Weatherlink, but if I did, no joy on the ag module:

Not for use with WeatherLink for Mac

I'm thinking for the gardens. We have seven raised beds now, I'm adding one in the empty gap for the rhubarb and asparagus first thing in the spring and then at least a long unboxed bed and another plot for grapes and blueberries. And all the boxes have very similar soil content, as when I add amenities to one, I generally add it to all of them (compost, manure, garden soil, peat moss.) So I figured I could mount the transmitter on the same post as the ISS and then drop a soil moisture and temp sensor in one of the adjacent beds. And if you look at where the ISS is on my web cam you'll see that it is very near one of my largest mulched flower beds. So I could bury the wire to that as well, figuring the rest are similar. We do water the veggie garden, flowers, and herbs.

I don't really care about the rest of the yard. We don't water it. It goes dormant late summer and is generally covered with snow in winter. We mow it the rest of the time.

We mostly direct seed or put in transplants from the local greenhouses. We've started seeds indoors and I've built a small hot house. We also use water towers around our tomatoes to help keep the heat of the day in overnight when it is still chilly. We water when the first couple inches feel dry. (Ironically, I'll cover my ISS, which is next to the garden, when we water the garden...) We use black ground cover for warm weather crops and mulch around cool crops.

I guess if I knew that when we planted the peas in March that the air temp was mid-40s and the soil was 50˚, and the soil was xx wet and we had crappy peas. How would that compare with a different set of data another year. Over time, would 47˚ soil prove to be ideal for peas? I have no idea. That's why I'm asking what people use the data for.

Thanks for the replies so far!
Steve

[Skywatch]

You might not be able to do anything about wet leaves, but you can do things for controlling the diseases associated with wet leaves.

http://www.weathershack.com/education/agricultural-weather-stations.html


http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/blackrot.htm

Leaf wetness can influence many diseases. I threw out an example in the link above.

You can do a little further research to find out what conditions effect growth. For example, I stop cultivating when the soil temperature drops below 50 degrees. Now the 50 degrees you threw out was that measured or wild geuss? For the most part soil and air temperature don't coorelate as mentioned in the first link.

[d_l]

Isn't there some sort of Windows emulator for the Mac that you could run WL on?

[smorris]

the 50 degrees you threw out was that measured or wild geuss?

Ha! I just pulled it out of my... ear. Thanks for the links!

Isn't there some sort of Windows emulator for the Mac that you could run WL on?

Not emulation, I can boot into either Mac OS or Windows. I just prefer not. That's always an option, though.

THanks,
Steve

[SLOweather]

How would I use soil moisture and temperature to supplement or enhance our gardening?

Thanks,
Steve

Well, I recently moved a leaf wetness/soil moisture station to our compost bin of about 1.5 cubic yards. Right now it's used for leaf wetness and temperature of the compost.

Granted, in this app, the leaf wetness is not useful for anything but interest. However, we are considering planting a wine grape vineyard, and leaf wetness will be more important then for deciding on spraying vines etc. Others have repurposed leaf wetness sensors as fog detectors and such.

The compost bin is another story. We used to send our green waste off site with the weekly trash/recycling pickup.

Now we shred/chip everything and compost it. Here's an example of how the Davis helps. I bury the temp probe in the pile every time I shred new material or turn the pile. Last Saturday, the pile temp was in the mid 70s F while the outdoor temp was considerably cooler. I shredded all the accumulated non-meat kitchen waste, the grass clippings, some leaves,and some damp oak bark, about 2-3 ft^3 and incorporated it into the pile and reburied the probe. The temperature started out at 77°F. Over the last 5 days, the temperature has risen to 117°F, a rise of 40°F. That tells me that the activity in the pile is working nicely. When it levels off and then starts to drop, I know it's time to turn the pile, adding air and redistributing the material, and maybe time to add more clippings, grass, bark, etc. 

When it's done, I run the compost through the chipper/shredder again and then set a portion aside for use, and reload the pile.

A compost pile needs to be kept damp, so I might be better off abandoning the leaf wetness and adding a moisture probe to the pile to track the moisture.

[smorris]

Oh, in the compost bin! A great idea that hadn't occurred to me. We tend to have too much green in ours, and it doesn't really "cook" like it should. That's an interesting idea.

THanks everyone for the informative input!
Steve