Soil temperature can tell you more than just whether the ground is warming up.
For turf professionals, understanding what is happening beneath the surface can provide valuable context for planting and seeding decisions, root development, and other biological activity in the soil. But soil temperature can vary by depth, location, moisture, and time of year, making it useful to measure conditions where they actually matter.
That’s where the POGO Soil Temperature Probe comes in.
With an adjustable depth, the probe gives turf managers the flexibility to measure soil temperature at different depths and investigate conditions below the normal sampling area.
Why Does Soil Temperature Matter?
Temperature influences many of the biological processes happening in soil.
As seasons change, soil temperature can help inform planting and seeding decisions by providing a better understanding of conditions below the surface. It can also provide insight into conditions that influence root growth, weed emergence, and soil organisms.
For turf managers, this information can provide another piece of the puzzle when evaluating changing conditions throughout the season.
Soil temperature can also vary considerably between locations. Areas with different amounts of sunlight, moisture, shade, soil composition, or vegetation may experience different temperature conditions even when they’re relatively close together.
Taking measurements in the field allows you to see those differences rather than relying solely on regional weather data or air temperature.
Measure Where It Matters
The POGO Soil Temperature Probe is designed to give you flexibility in where you take your measurements.
The probe can be adjusted when you want to keep your sampling setup at the standard depth, extended deeper when you want to investigate conditions below the normal sampling area, or moved upward when soil temperature isn’t part of your routine sampling needs.
This makes soil temperature a measurement you can collect when it’s relevant to the question you’re trying to answer, rather than something you necessarily need to include with every routine POGO sample.
For example, you may want to investigate deeper soil conditions during seasonal transitions, when evaluating root-zone conditions, or when trying to better understand differences between areas of your property.
Built for the Root Zone and Beyond
The POGO Soil Temperature Probe uses a 2.25-inch (57 mm) marine-grade stainless steel probe, designed to reach the depth where predominant moisture and salinity exchanges occur.
The adjustable design gives you the flexibility to explore beyond that standard sampling depth when needed, or move the probe above the tines when you don’t need to collect a soil temperature reading.
Combined with POGO’s other measurements, soil temperature can provide additional context for understanding what’s happening below the turf surface.
POGO can measure key soil conditions including:
- Soil Moisture helps you understand how much water is available in the soil and identify differences in moisture conditions across your property.
- Electrical Conductivity (EC) provides an indication of the amount of dissolved material, including salts, present in the soil solution. Tracking EC can help identify changes in soil conditions that may warrant further investigation.
- Salinity Index (SI) provides insight into the concentration of salts in the available soil moisture, helping turf managers monitor changes in salinity conditions over time.
- Canopy Temperature provides a measurement of the temperature at the turf surface, helping identify differences in heat conditions across areas of your property.
- Soil Temperature measures temperature below the surface, providing insight into conditions affecting the root zone and biological activity in the soil.
Together, these measurements can help build a more complete picture of the environment surrounding your turf.
Soil Temperature Is One More Piece of the Puzzle
No single measurement tells the whole story.
Soil temperature becomes more useful when viewed alongside soil moisture, EC, salinity, weather conditions, turf observations, and other measurements. By collecting data at the location and depth that matter, turf managers can better understand how conditions are changing beneath the surface.
POGO can measure all this, and TurfPro helps you analyze it.
Whether you’re monitoring seasonal changes, investigating root-zone conditions, or simply looking for more information about what’s happening below your turf, the POGO Soil Temperature Probe gives you another way to measure what you can’t see.
Measure where it matters.
Understand what’s happening beneath the surface with the POGO Soil Temperature Probe.
Learn more about the POGO Soil Temperature Probe
Learn more about POGO and TurfPro or request a demo today: