Soil temperatures now ideal for seeding, regional farmers say
The soil may be moist but it has been a chilly spring taking a long time for the ground to warm up for farmers to plant crops, says Alberta Agriculture.
“You really shouldn’t be planting in soil that is less than 5 degrees because if you put your seed in the soil and it is still too cold, or just defrosted, and does not heat up rapidly those seeds will not germinate. They will just slowly rot,” said Harry Brook, crop specialist with Alberta Agriculture.
The soil is already warm in Elkwater and the Hutterites started seeding peas and durum wheat a few days ago, said farm manager Mike Hofer.
“Right now conditions are really good,” said Hofer. “Moisture conditions are excellent.”
Soil temperature monitoring take place by Alberta Agriculture across the province at a depth of 5 cm and 20 cm. The surface soil temperature and 5 cm below can vary significantly depending on daily temperatures and frost, said Brook.
“When you see the 20 cm depth approaching 5 degrees then even if there is variation in the ambient temperature in the top soil there is enough heat being produced down below to keep a higher temperature constant,” said Brook.
Some weeds will start to sprout or grow with a soil temperature of one or two degrees.
In Foremost on Thursday the soil temperature was around 8 degrees, said Brook, indicating appropriate conditions for seeding. In Schuler it was 6.5 degrees after having been higher earlier in the week.
Other factors farmers are looking at include the probability of frost and, in particular, a “killing frost.” Once seed is in the ground it will take roughly 14 days to emerge, so farmers are predicting the likelihood of frost at that point, said Brook. Farmers are also looking at forecasts for rain.
“Moisture in the soil cannot be underestimated. Back in 2015 we had an extremely dry spring ... but there was enough moisture in the soil that it carried that crop, got the crop germinating, and the crop held on until we started getting rains in July,” said Brook.
Last year farmers were planting crops in March — something Brook calls an “aberration”.
“It was not normal and very dry,” he explained. “This year is more typical.”