As the temperatures are warming up, I know that more and more people are thinking about planting outside. Because of that, I want to talk about site selection for plants, and some general planting guidelines.
One of the most important things is when to plant. There are a couple of temperatures to keep your eye on. If you are planting from seed, you need to wait until soil temperatures have risen to 65 degrees at 4 inch depth. Planting seeds into soil that is too cold will reduce the germination of those seeds. Those seeds will be more affected by seedling diseases. In the next couple of weeks, we will start to have soil temperatures above 65. To check the soil temperatures you can go to georgiaweather.net. This website has a lot of good weather information. The weather stations that I would recommend using are the one in Blairsville and the one in Tiger.
The second temperature that needs to be checked is one that people are familiar with already. That is the air temperature. Annual plants that have already emerged are going to be susceptible to freezing temperatures. A killing frost for plants is when temperatures dip down below 28 degrees. You can protect plants against those temperatures by placing a bucket, sheet, or floating row cover over them.
For site selection, you need 6-8 hours of full sun for a vegetable garden or annual ornamentals. Finding enough sun can be difficult in the mountains, but plants that don’t have enough sun will be stressed. Stressed plants are going to be more susceptible to diseases and insects. They also won’t produce as much or any fruit.
Another thing to consider is soil drainage. With the heavy clay soil that most sites have, this is a challenge. Some river bottoms will have a loamy clay soil that has better drainage. Tillage and aerification will improve soil drainage. Planting on a slope also improves soil drainage, because you will have more runoff. You don’t want a slope that is too steep, because then erosion is a problem. In addition, if the slope is too steep it’s difficult to get equipment in there, like a hand tiller.
Placing your garden close to a water source is also a good idea. A spigot nearby means that you can water when there is no rain. A good thing about clay soil is that the water holding capacity is much higher than other soils. However, if we have some dry spells as we did last year, plants will need to be watered. When watering, the water has to soak into the soil, down to the roots. Simply wetting the top of the soil won’t provide enough water. You want to water plants deeply and thoroughly. Overwatering plants leads to problems as well. The ideal time to water is in the morning so that plants have time to dry off throughout the day. Sending plants into the nighttime with wet leaves is a recipe for disease.
If you have questions about getting your garden started contact your County Extension Office. At this time, Towns County Extension Office is closed. The Union County Extension Office is going to be closed for the duration of the shelter in place order. In both offices, we are checking voicemail periodically. The best way to contact me, any day of the week, regardless of where I am is by email. My email is Jacob.Williams@uga.edu. If you need a site visit email me, and we can work out the parameters to protect our health.