Mark Hunt’s Weather Assessment
7th April – 14th April 2010
Well, Easter passed pretty much as forecast and now we are beginning to benefit from some milder air flows as forecast last week. This will push in warmer air and I have noticed this already with temperatures in the Midlands (UK) hitting 17°C yesterday (6th April) and the soil temperature reaching 10°C for the first time this year. Remember though that, to produce good growth, we need 14°C soil temperature so good, but not great growing conditions at present.
Looking ahead, the rest of this week should be pleasantly warm and dry but, as cloud cover thins we can expect night temperatures to drop to close to freezing and so I think we are entering a period of 'Thermals to Tee Shirt' days and these are tricky to manage in terms of greens growth. For the next 5 days I can't see any signs of significant rain over the U.K. and Ireland. Beyond that, it's tricky to forecast because the weather patterns aren't easy to interpret but, there is a chance that this settled weather pattern will persist through next week as well with cold nights, warm days and little rain.
Agronomically, greens have lost their colour over the Easter Weekend and many have taken on a patchy appearance because cold winds and cold rain has knocked grass growth back temporarily, but this should start to recover slowly over the course of this week as the grass plants begin to grow at a uniform rate - some are growing, some are not and this provides the mottled appearance to a green because the growing plants are taking up nutrient and the slow growing / non-growing ones are not. A good way to change this quickly is a light foliar application of nutrient inputting around 5kg nitrogen in the form of ammonium sulphate, potassium nitrate and applied in no more than 400 litres per hectare spray volume. (Tankmixing a light rate of iron will also be beneficial).
During this type of weather, the above approach provides a more consistent growth pattern than granular applications because although day temperatures are warm, night temperatures are cold and this keeps the soil temperature down, so in effect by adopting a foliar approach, we are bypassing the issue of low soil temperature.
Disease-wise, there's a small amount of Fusarium around, originating from the early part of last week when we had a combination of mild temperatures and moisture. In addition, I've seen some effects from plant-parasitic nematodes already, so I think the model that is used to predict their activity (soil temperature of 10°C) is way out. It seems to me that despite being Poikilothermic (cold blooded and a great word to impress friends and family with), plant-parasitic nematodes are active once soil temperatures are 4 – 5°C, rather than the 10°C that has been mooted in the past.
Mark Hunt
Technical Director
Headland Amenity Ltd
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