Just call me impatient. But how do you know what your ground temperture is in spring.. .like in my area, our last frost date is May 10. But I'm asking about March and April.

Do you go by what's coming up? or watch the temps on the weather? I won't be able to get out there for a few weeks, so I'm hoping the soil will be warm enough to plant peas, beets, and carrots.

Perhaps when the grass starts to green up is a good sign? Around here grass usually starts greening up in time for St. Patrick's day.

http://www.vegedge.umn.edu/mnvegnew/vol2/2004t.1.htm

This table has some interesting information.
It looks like waiting one week for the ground to get warmer could make a difference.

I think Lisaann posted that website. I didn't get it to come in right. Sorry, but the table can be found in an earlier post.

I don't wait for the grass to "green up" before planting cool weather crops. As soon as the soil can be worked, meaning when you dig down there is no frost left, is when I start planting peas, onions, beets, carrots, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, potatoes. A little frost won't hurt any of these crops. I have planted potatoes in March before and they have been fine. No matter when they are planted, it still takes 3-4 wks for them to come up. So if you planted potatoes first wk of April, they wouldn't be up much before your last frost.

If potatoes get frosted after they are up, they will recover on their own. If I get really ambitious and a frost is forecast, I will cover the rows with mulch and that does the trick.

Warm weather crops are a little more iffy, I generally wait til the last date of frost for my area, usually 2nd-3rd wk of May, or when I see volunteer tomato plants coming up--it's time.

The squash and cukes don't go in til June 1. My grandpa said so.

So I guess I just go on intuition and what makes sense when the time comes. I don't want it to be rocket science!

Well, I guess this was a silly question. I did manage to go out back in my tennis shoes (Left the darn Cast Boot in the house). Now that I've been out there, I have a better idea of what I will do. I think I will plant my spring veggies next week after we have had a week of temps above 50.

I should be "Out of the Cast boot" after I see the doctor this Friday. Our temps are coming up by then. The back yard feels much warmer than the screened in porch. (As far as I have been able to venture into the back yard).

I went out and laid plastic down to warm up the soil for peas and stuff Yesterday morning.

Tommorrow I'm going out to cover my other bed too, because the stupid weatherman is calling for snow and I want to dig some stuff in this weekend and don't want it wet. The wind has been howling and think the ground is drying and I am trying to stay on my plant peas by the 15th schedule. Course last year was warming already and peas were in by the 8th. Yep, I'm grumbling.

Now you know it is going to go from freezing to blistering hot in a wink of an eye this year. More grumbling!

Almost forgot: maybe you've seen that I use a cheap meat themometer that starts at zero. I got it from Walmart, but funny thing, I've been seeing them meat probes like that everywhere lately. It's gotta start at zero!

You could get one of these little gizmos. Lots of places sell these. I got one to try and figure out the best time to plant and transplant in the spring.

I had a heck of a time last spring getting my carrots to germinate. I got impatient and replanted them 3 times. Then I saw that germination times for carrots was something like 51 days at a soil temp of 55 degrees. Sheesh, you're better off waiting till the soil warms to the right temp.

Hi Talented Pogo,

Walmart has meat thermometers for a few bucks, tops $3.00. sAME THING 4 BUCKS LESS, MORE SEED BUYING MONEY.hAhA

Any new gourds for me to admire? Gotta check out the craft forum.

quote:

Originally posted by pogo:
You could get one of these little gizmos. Lots of places sell these. I got one to try and figure out the best time to plant and transplant in the spring.

I had a heck of a time last spring getting my carrots to germinate. I got impatient and replanted them 3 times. Then I saw that germination times for carrots was something like 51 days at a soil temp of 55 degrees. Sheesh, you're better off waiting till the soil warms to the right temp.

I saw an article on one of my oooooooooooold OG magazines about pre-sprouting carrot seeds. When I return home tomorrow night I'll look it up. In the meantime, if anyone can offer any help about directly sowing pre-sprouted seeds I would appreciate it.

Are pre-sprouted seeds fragile? Should they be handled with extreme care when sowing directly outside? This is what I'm wondering about.

Yep, That's labeled FRAGILE!

quote:

Originally posted by wasrabbity:
...how do you know what your ground temperture is in spring.

Like others have mentioned here, use a soil or meat thermometer. Our soil temps outside right now are "frozen". But the soil temp in the greenhouse is 55º.

I positioned a ~160-watt heating wire about 3" below the surface in one section of the greenhouse and it brought the soil temp up to 70º. So yesterday, I planted lettuce, mesclun, carrots, beets, spinach, radishes, and parsley over the heated section. While the greens can germinate in the cooler soil, the carrots and beets need it warmer.

And that whole section of the greenhouse will be a bit warmer in our still-freezing March weather with the low tunnel that I made from row cover material over it.

Once the early crops of that bunch are harvested I'll put tomatoes in, and then pull the carrots and beets a little later. I'll move the parsley outside eventually.

I also planted a small section of peas in the cooler soil in the greenhouse yesterday. But I *might* try to move them outside in April.

Last year, I planted peas outside on April 15 - under plastic row covers in our raised beds. They did well, but the second planting that I made nearly four weeks later caught up with them and a month later you couldn't tell them apart.

There's something to be said for waiting a few weeks for warmer soil.

Okay, so you folks get thermometers. That makes good sense. I see if I can find one.

I agree with lisaann about going from Below freezing to 80 in a short period of time. Arggh!

I've noticed that there are a number of different temps in my yard, just based on how soon grass and other things come up.. The more shelter, or being next to something dark... the warmer it is.

Thanks for answering my question... I'll get a thermometer. When do you read the things? Early morning, Noon? Evening?

Soil temperatures and your average latest date of frost have nothing in common just as soil temperatures and your average first date of frost have nothing to do with one another. What you soil temperatures are depend on how much sun the soil gets and how much moisture is in that soil, wet soils do not warm up as fast as dry soils do, so good drainage does have an affect on soils warming. Covering soils with plastic generally inhibits warming rather than helping, in my experience, because the moisture that needs to be evaporated is held in the soil, or near by.
Grass greening is a good indication of soil warming, but the best way to tell if it is time to plant is to grab a handful of your soil and squeeze it and feel it. Is that soil workable? Does the soil feel warm (keeping in mind that soil should always feel cool)?