Mr. Coconut Palm
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Need To Raise My Soil Temp By 3F Or 4F

Hi Everyone,

I need to raise my soil temp by 3F or 4F especially in the winter time. I live in Flour Bluff on the east side of Corpus Christi, Texas (Zone 10A), and my normal soil temp in January is 57F or 57.5F, but I need to get it up around 60F or 61F. I am growing coconut palms in my yard, and I don't want to lose them. They need a minimum soil temp of about 60F. My yard is about 95 to 98% sand, so I add compost, my MicroLife All Organic Fertilizer, and Organic Native Hardwood Mulch when I plant them, but I need to do something to increase the soil temps over the long term. Will the increased organic matter in the soil, which causes increased microbial activity, increase my soil temps?

Thanks,
John

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rainbowgardener
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Location: TN/GA 7b

Will the increased organic matter in the soil, which causes increased microbial activity, increase my soil temps?

Maybe some, but inconsistently and not nearly enough. When you add more organic matter [depending on what and how much], the temperature may warm a little, but then as then as that gets broken down, it will cool down again.

Putting black plastic over the area will help warm the soil. Or mulching with peat moss. Build a raised bed around your palms with either a black edging or stones/bricks for thermal mass. The raised soil will warm quicker than the ground anyway and the edging will help collect heat. The combination of plastic sheet with several inches of peat moss over it is very effective.

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Soil heating cable on a thermostat isn't an option?

I think mulching and masonry heat mass like rainbowgardener said should work well to make just the few degrees difference.

Paving around them leaving planting circles for them would provide reflected heat too, and a pond to the south side is another way, if that is what you need, though you said *soil* and not upper growths.

Mr green
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Like already said stones! They are a good way to bumb your local climate zone preferably quite large pieces that goes down into the ground a bit. If you gonna make a compost-mulch layer to give extra heat this will hardly get you throug any longer time period (if you don't make huge piles of compost). But is it only Januari that is the problem?

But still stones. Ponds as applestar said are good to even out the climate as well.

AnnaIkona
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If I were you, I would try to mulch it with peat moss, leaves, etc.



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