Irrigation Vital for Row Crops During Hot, Dry Conditions

Jul 23, 2020

By Pam Knox

The hot, dry conditions across the Southeast are increasing demand for irrigation for many crops that are at peak water need. Evapotranspiration values are running as much as a quarter inch per day in the sunny southern areas. I’ve attached a map of yesterday’s ET for Georgia. You can really see how the sunny conditions in the south half of the state are ramping up the ET compared to the northern half, which had more rain and clouds. The mess on the map around Tifton is due to our UGA Weather Network station there being damaged by farm equipment, which snapped the steel tripod, cracked the wind gauge (used in the ET calculation) and broke off the lightning rod. Fortunately our technicians went down there today and fixed it up. You can read more at Southeast AgNet at http://southeastagnet.com/2020/07/21/irrigation-row-crops-hot-dry-conditions/.

Source : uga.edu

Video: Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes | Field Talk Friday

Field Talk Friday | Dr. John Murphy | Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes

Most of us spend our time managing what we can see above ground—plant height, leaf color, stand counts, and yield potential. But the deeper you dig into agronomy, the more you realize that some of the most important processes driving crop performance are happening just millimeters below the surface.

In this episode of Field Talk Friday, Dr. John Murphy continues the soil biology series by diving into one of the most fascinating topics in modern agronomy: root exudates and the role they play in shaping the microbial world around plant roots.

Roots are not passive structures simply pulling nutrients out of the soil. They are active participants in the underground ecosystem. Plants constantly release compounds into the soil—sugars, amino acids, organic acids, and other molecules—that act as both energy sources and signals for soil microbes.