Planting by soil temperatures

The weather has been so wacky these past couple of years that I'm changing my planting strategy. Instead of relying on last/first frost dates, I'm going to be using soil temperatures.

I've found a few useful charts on the internet as guides.

Any thoughts?

After last spring, I'm thinking about putting plastic film tents or hoops over my rasied to get the soil warm and less soggy, sooner.

Today my soil temperature is 65 F

Wow. Even though I'm also 8a (recently upgraded to 8b) , not even our daytime avtg high air temp will be that high for months!

honeybee, that is my thought too! Great minds.....for tomatoes I think we need 75°. Do you have something in mind to help the process along?

drthor, my soil is at 60 today. This weekend I'll get serious about warming the soil with black plastic and glass doors on the raised beds. Someone here gave me a great idea about adding fresh manure a couple feet down to warm the soil. Sounds like a great, natural idea. Sadly, I have no hot manure. :-|

Rick, I'd do the hoops but I need something easy because I have so much else to do. If I can sweet-talk DH into that project it'll fly but he has more projects than he can keep up with now and my garden beds......well the key word there is 'my'.

>> Rick, I'd do the hoops but I need something easy because I have so much else to do.

I know the feeling! Most of my pet projects have been waiting 2-3 years to reach the front of the line.

I haven't got a clue as to how warm my soil is. What're ya'll using to measure? I recall someone said a regular old, cheap meat thermometer would work.

I'm targeting setting my tomatoes out on February 25th, since we're gonna dip down into the 40s at night all next week. Hopefully, the temps will start climbing from then on.

I'm gonna try a double hoop system this year. Once I set out the seedlings, I'll make a short 2' hoop over the beds that I can cover with sheets if the temps are dipping below 45° at night. I'll have a taller, 4.5' hoop over that and cover with the perforated plastic. Long as there's an airspace between the two covers, there shouldn't be an extreme heat build-up.

Linda

Linda, yes a plain old meat thermometer. I use it to measure the compost heat as well.

Gymgirl,
I normally mulch heavily my tomatoes with pine needles

Drthor,
I just read on another thread a recommendation against heavily mulching the tomatoes. The mulch keeps the heat from building up in the soil, which is what your tomatoes want - - warm feet!

It works for me ... very well
Once the thread of cold is gone, I just move away the pine needles a bit.

Actually I heavy much the peppers and the eggplants with pine needles too for the heat of the summer.
It works here ...

No kidding. What are those large black ones in the middle?

Black Krim .... buonissssssssimo

OMG! I've got some of those started.....can't wait.

In my garden Black Krim doesn't produce many tomatoes ... so I normally plant 2 of them.
Also the fruit will crack under extreme heat .... still delishhhhh

Fruit crack is characteristic of the Black Krims. I got a bumper crop this past season. I'm pretty sure it was because of the new container mix I used: Tapla's 5:1:1.

This is one from my second crop of veggies back in 2008-2009. They can get pretty hefty!

Mary - I sow tomato seeds every week for three to four weeks. If a late frost gets the first batch, I have more in the house.

I usually start sowing tomatoes indoors on March 18th. Because we have had such a mild winter, I'm going to start at least two weeks earlier this year. I've purchased extra seeds and a heat mat/thermometer.

I am using an instant-read thermometer to monitor the indoor soil temperature.

Most of the info out there suggests not to mulch tomatoes, peppers or eggplant until it gets hot to let the soil get warm because thats what these plants need. However, this is a rather broad statement. "Hot" is a relative term. LOL I do have a chart that gives recommended soil temps for certain plants. Some plants are more forgiving then others.

Bee-once again a very useful thread

Links to soil temperature charts? : )

This is the one I use its for North Texas but soil temps would be the same. Also planting out peppers when the soil is below the minimum temps can stunt the plant/roots for the whole season. Hope this works http://dallas-tx.tamu.edu/files/2010/06/Vegetable-Planting-Guide.pdf

The soil temp info is at the very bottom.

This message was edited Feb 4, 2012 1:17 PM

I use the info found in the Territorial Seeds catalog. They always include the soil temp ranges for each individual veg and a lot more useful information besides. I go by soil temps, too. Then if frost hits I can just cover.

There's a soil temperature chart about half way down this page:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/ag-06.html

I know I've seen a number of ways to take soil temperature. Some recommend at a certain time of day, etc. How are you guys measuring?

I stick a cheap meat thermometer in the bed. Not terribly scientific but it works okay for me. ;-)

Mary- I was just reading my soil temp chart and that's what it says to use. That's the only way mine's going to get any use anyway. Lol. It does say to take the reading at the same time everyday preferably in the morning when the soil would be at it's coolest.

Some plants aren't as picky as others when it comes to soil temps but peppers can be stunted if planted out when the soil is too cool.

I use a compost thermometer

Y'all are just teasing me.

Last week I started putting away my winter gear. We had 8 or 10 days of highs in the mid-70's, lows in the 50's. I moved the first flat of pepper plants from under the lights in the garage onto the deck next to the pool to catch some rays, and I'm out in the back yard in shorts and T-shirt hustling to plant and prune apple trees before the buds break. The solar collectors have the pool temperature up to 78º, and I'm thinking I'll be swimming laps in a week.

Tonight the overnight low in Gainesville Florida will be 24ºF (it was already down to 36º at 1:00AM); they're saying 51ºF for a high tomorrow, and 23ºF tomorrow night. And I'm running the pool water all night through the solar collectors to keep them from freezing and bursting (and cooling down the pool water of course).

The predicted high by Wednesday is 79º, with 81º expected by Thursday, with a 57º overnight low.

I'd have to be out there with my thermometer every 15 minutes (I'd probably wear it out in a few weeks).

-Rich

Rich, Those temp ranges are just crazy. We've been very warm here as well but there's a cold front coming through next week - overnight low's to the high 30's so I'll wait for that front to pass, then start working in soil amendments and plant out before the end of this month. Soil temps do not change as rapidly as air temps do. I just leave the thermometer stuck in the soil and check it occassionally.

drthor, I use the meat thermometer for the compost too. lisa, that's about all mine gets used for too....occassionally a pork roast or roasted chicken on the grill. My pepper plants are still in 4" pots.

MarymcP - they've lowered the predicted overnight low to 21ºF. Not surprising - it's 25ºF right now. I was out at 11 making sure the spigots were still dripping and the sweet clover out back was covered in frost that made little crunching sounds as I walked. And in 3 days they still say it will hit 80ºF... I don't have a clue what to put on in the morning.

-Rich

Jeez - that's whacky. Layers Rich - dress in layers. :-)

It was 31° Saturday morning, and 38° Sunday morning. Very windy and very cold all weekend. Didn't get above 60° either day.

This morning, it's around 54°, cold and drizzly.

Tomorrow it's supposed to be 78°......

Thanks for the thought. I lost a lot of new growth on fruit trees, some veggies where a cover blew off, but all in all came out OK. No frozen pipes, a bane of houses designed and built by Floridians; I had all exposed pipes covered and dripping. I learned my lessons the hard way, living in old country houses way back in graduate school days.

It was actually nice out this morning, in the 20's but very dry air so the cold didn't go right through the clothes, and I still remember how to dress for the cold. One more chilly night (37 tonight) and then another warming period. Hope this is the end of it (but I'll miss it a bit come August).

-Rich