Spring Planting
What do you wait for?
I was asked last week, “what do you wait for to start planting?” It was a difficult question to answer because there are so many factors that play into the beginning of the planting season.
One thing we look for before we start planting is a pattern of warmer weather. The soil temperature is a key factor in seedling germination. If the soil is too cold, the seed will sit and wait for warmer temperatures and waste energy. The more energy it uses to stay alive underground is less energy it has to push the sprout to the soil surface. There is potential to reduce yield and plant population by planting into soil that is too cold.
Another factor we look for is soil moisture. If we can wait a week or two to get more moisture in the ground, then we are more likely to have healthier plants than if we make them wait for rain. Currently the soil is very dry. Even though we had a lot of snow this winter, it did not add much moisture to the soil (see previous blog post for more information on this) so we would like to see more rain in the near future.
As a farmer, you have to know that you can’t wait too long to put the seeds in the ground, but you also can’t plant too early. It’s a difficult thing to balance. We are currently planting corn, and we think that the warmer weather pattern and the rain in the forecast make now an ideal time to plant corn.
It’s been longer since my last blog post than I had intended, but with winter dragging on and on there wasn’t much that I thought would be too interesting. We got the tractors serviced for the spring season in late March.
Another project we have been working on was tiling. Field tile is a plastic tube with little slits in it; it gets buried in the field at a set slope. When the water table rises high enough in the soil, the water flows into the tubes and out of the field. This allows the area where the plants roots are to be well drained and never waterlogged. This helps keep air around the roots as well as the right amount of water. Overall we feel that this is a very good investment and increases soil health and yield. If you have four minutes to watch this video, it’s very informative about field tile:
As the weather gets nicer and the crop continues to grow I look forward to writing more blog posts and keeping all of you updated on what’s happening around the farm.
Steven Zimmerman4/20/2014
