@GoDawgs Interesting. I pulled up a couple of tuscan kale a couple of days ago and you are right, not a single nematode lesion on the roots. This in my worst nematode bed. Something in the kale is keeping the nematodes away. I put a couple of peppers in the kale spot. Wonder if they will get attacked by the nematodes or will the kale effect linger?

@karstopography , here's the article I read:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 940600367X

I'll be interested in seeing how your peppers do in that bed.

https://mccc.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads ... stards.pdf

More on brassicas for nematode control. I plant various brassicas in the fall in most of my beds, maybe I’m getting more benefits from that practice than just tasty winter green vegetables.

Thanks for the link, Karst.

Soil temp is up to 70 today in the bed I just forked. Will be planting corn circles in it on the 15th.

Soil temperatures low to mid 70s as of the late Afternoon of April 19th.

I went and bought one of those compost thermometers, needed one for a while anyway.

I checked mine today, 50F at 6" deep in the raised boxes. I've been checking on an off, it is up from about 45 over the last few weeks, coming on slowly. All the beds and ground have been about the same.

I don't really like the name though, makes me pucker up a little bit each time. It's only two letters off from what my eyes try to spell.

jlhart76 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 6:24 pm I'm a data geek by profession so it doesn't sound like a waste of time to me. Then again, I tracked historical temperatures for 120 years to prove there isn't a correlation between the garden folktale that "we always get a freeze at easter".

Visited family near Cincinnati OH over Easter. Monday morning we had huge snow flakes. A single snow flake could fill a snow cone,. No joke! At least 4 inches in diameter!

Well,i guess that isn't exactly on Easter, missed it by a few hours. Maybe the flakes were compensating?

Soil temperature has come up maybe a couple of degrees in the last 10 days or so. Not much, nothing drastic.

Yesterday morning I hoed up a ridge for planting sweet potato slips today. Soil temp was about 68. I checked it again late afternoon after a full day of sun and the ridged soil was 80 at 5" deep! This morning it was back down to 70. The slips are now in so off we go.

I lost store bought plants in containers last year.
soil temp was 87F
They were in my care 1 month before they cooked.

Peppers would have loved that heat!

I went out yesterday to check the soil temp for planting my tomatoes, and it was 62°, so I'm good to go. The temp under the WOWs I set up a week ago is 72°, and the water in those was 90°, late in the day. I only set up 6 of those to keep out rabbits, when I plant some butternut squash - not so I can plant them early, and speed things up.

@pepperhead212 yea, I have 40 plus pepper plants going. Most all have multiple peppers on them. The C.baccatum ones are slower, naturally.

In the ground, not quite so raised bed is a little cooler than the raised beds. The raised beds do have full contact with the native topsoil layer below. I watered part of the garden yesterday and that looks to be a bit cooler also.

Compost pile is generating some heat. Help when I stir it periodically.

Soil temperature of my containers at 10:00 this morning.
I have a thousand thermometers.

A few days ago, the container temp for my peppers was around 75° - fairly warm, since they are on the S side of the house, though not in the sun all day. Yesterday, the okra EBs were the same.

What is the minimum soil temp for peppers? It’s early for them here but they are saying 90 degrees next weekend so I would like to take advantage of that. That said, if soil temps change so rapidly with changing weather how good is it to use as a tool for when to plant?

Sue_CT wrote: ↑Sun May 15, 2022 11:48 am What is the minimum soil temp for peppers? It’s early for them here but they are saying 90 degrees next weekend so I would like to take advantage of that. That said, if soil temps change so rapidly with changing weather how good is it to use as a tool for when to plant?

It's good to use as a tool so you don't plant in cold soil.
My limit is 60F to 65F for tomatoes and peppers.
Plant below this and they really don't do anything
As well as other warm weather plants.
But there seems to always be the exception with things.

I would put down black weed barrier to help mother nature.

https://www.weather.gov/ncrfc/LMI_SoilT ... eDepthMaps
Soil temperature map for north central US. Can’t find New England on this site.

walk on the earth barefoot
if your feet get numb,too cold