Soil Temperatures Remain Steady

Jarrod O. Miller, Extension Agronomist, jarrod@udel.edu and Cory Whaley, Agriculture Agent, whaley@udel.edu

So far in April soil temperatures are on a linear rise and have reached 60°F in Georgetown (Figure 1). In 2020 temperature also rose through mid-April, before falling due to colder snap. This year the weather outlook is mild over the next 10 days (62-70°F), but soil temperatures will probably remain where they currently are, particularly if cloudy nights occur, which keeps soils from losing heat through radiation.

Soil water content has been falling (Figure 2), even with some of our recent rainfall. As we have seen most of the winter, 2021 has been a little wetter than 2020, but spring is bringing drier weather. We have a few showers predicted but the outlook for planting on time is still good.

Keep up with your regional conditions through DEOS (http://www.deos.udel.edu/).