In addition to this blog, I am now also contributing to The Garden Professors once a month. Here is a past article by John Porter of Nebraska from their blog which describes why starting seeds at their optimal temperature is so important. While the article discusses this in terms of the home gardener who is planting their garden, it is certainly important for planting out in the field too. If you plant when the ground is too cold, then the seed is likely to just sit there and not germinate, or could even rot if it is wet enough. That will bring your yields way down and could require replanting. So don’t plant too early! Monitor your local soil temperature to see what it is now, and keep an eye on the weather for any cold spells in the week ahead, which could cause soil temperatures to drop. Our UGA weather network has a map of current soil temperatures at three depths at https://weather.uga.edu/?content=tr&variable=XS.
