Meat thermometer as a soil thermometer
I've been itching for a soil
thermometer, but haven't wanted to pay for shipping and couldn't find
one locally. When we were in Wal-Mart the other day, I stumbled
across a meat thermometer in the cooking section that I suspected would
do the job. As far as I can tell, the only difference between a
typical meat thermometer and a soil thermometer is that the latter
tends to measure lower temperatures, and the Mainstays Quick-Response
Thermometer goes all the way down to 0 degrees Fahrenheit so that you
can test meat temperatures in the freezer as well as on the grill ---
perfect!
I gave my new soil
thermometer a test run in the chicken coop's deep bedding yesterday and was highly
impressed to see that composting action raises the temperature from the
exterior soil temperature (27 degrees Fahrenheit) to a toasty 58
degrees! Just think how useful this thermometer will be to help
me figure out when the soil is warm enough to plant peas (35 to 40
degrees.) Usually, I just put the seeds in the ground two or
three times throughout the late winter in hopes that I'll hit on the
right soil temperature by chance, and I suspect adding a little science
to the mix will save me the $7.97 cost of the thermometer in lowered
seed costs during the first year.
Now, if I can just
remember not to stick my chicken-poop-covered thermometer into a juicy
steak....
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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You can check the callibration of the thermometer by sticking it first in a mixture of ice and water and second in boiling water. If I'm not mistaken these two situations should correspond to the two red lines on the dial.
By mixing measured amounts of freezing and boiling water you should be able to create water of temperatures inbetween as well.
Just spent the last few hours looking for compost thermometer for my new compost bin. [AreoBin 400] Your suggestion sent me running to my BBQ to check the meat thermo. which has a probe and transmitter and remote receiver. Put probe in freezer and it went down to -12 C befor it displaye error and all way to over 200 C in one degree increments. As we do not do spit roasts any more I will use it for the compost and monitor the temp from my favorite chair!