When spending thousands of dollars on seed you may want to check more than the farmers almanac to know when to plant.
The University of Georgia and other parties have put a bunch of money and resources into the UGA Weather Network. Here you can find all sorts of great weather information.
There are several tools that are helpful for farmers. Fruit growers can track chill hours. You can also measure growing degree days which can be helpful for crop maturity.
This time of year I use it to monitor soil temperatures. We have some dates that we can use for determining planting on certain crops, but what it all comes down to is the optimal soil temperatures for germination and emergence.
In cool soils seed are slower to germinate and plants are slower to emerge. This can lead to an increased incidence of seedling diseases and just stunted plants.
There are tons of weather stations around that you can use to determine what the soil temperatures are doing on any particular day in your area.
Soil temperature at the 2 and 4 inch depths will fluctuate throughout the day but what we are looking for is an average of 65 degrees at the 2 and 4 inch depths for crops like cotton and peanuts. Plus a favorable forecast following.
To view the soil temperatures you can go to the website, pick your location and go to the current conditions tab on the left. From there you get a drop down and you can click on 7 day summary. Let us know if you have any problems
