Soil moisture levels near normal in most of Manitoba

Dec 21, 2022

Soil moisture levels at freeze-up are near normal or below normal in most Manitoba basins, the province says.

“Conditions in most areas appear somewhat favourable,” said transportation and infrastructure minister Doyle Piwniuk in a Dec. 19 news release.

Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure’s Hydrologic Forecast Centre released the 2022 Manitoba Basins Fall Conditions Report.

It says most Manitoba basins received record to near record precipitation this past winter and spring. This created significant flooding. Hydrologic conditions improved over summer and fall with normal to below-normal precipitation.

In October and November, southern, western and eastern Manitoba basins received below-normal precipitation, while central and northern Manitoba basins received normal to well-above-normal precipitation.

Due to precipitation levels in summer and fall, soil moisture at the time of freeze-up is near normal to below normal for most Manitoba basins, with some areas in central Manitoba and the Interlake region having above-normal soil moisture.

Click here to see more...

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.