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Re: Soil temp

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Annie, and All

Once again, black plastic heats itself, clear (or not opaque) sheeting heats
whatever the rays fall on (THE GROUND.)

The only benefit of covering the ground with black sheeting is that weeds et
al won't sprout.

I'd prefer to use clear, or nearly so, sheeting which warms the ground and
sprouts many of the lurking weed seeds so that the can be removed more
easily.

I warm my 4'X6' corn bed for 2 wks, pull weeds and plant the corn (6 rows of
9 plants, with 4 different maturing dates) and replace the 4 to 6 mil clear
plastic sheeting over the planted area.

Its important to check the bed every morning, after 5 - 7 days, for the
first sprouts, at which time I place 2"- 3" wide board (I use scrap 2X4's on
edge) between the rows and recover with the sheeting for another week or so.

I have found that 1" chicken wire will support 6 mil "clear" plastic
sheeting off the plants and, after the sheeting is removed, will keep the
neighborhood cats, et al, out of the bed until the pants are able to fend
for themselves.

This process gives me a ~3 wk head start on long season crops, and earlier
corn!

REMEMBER: BLACK SHEETING HEATS ITSELF, CLEAR SHEETING HEATS WHAT'S UNDER IT.

If you have doubts, cover the outside of one sunny window with black
sheeting, another with clear (or no) sheeting and, after a short time. check
the difference in temp.

Regards,
DT (aka Dore Tyler)  dee_tee@msn.com
Doing his own thing in the privacy of his own garden.
USDA Zone 8b, Tacoma, WA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Annie Sargent" <annie@esargent.org>
To: "Square Foot Gardening List" <sqft@listbot.com>
Sent: Friday, February 02, 2001 8:38 AM
Subject: Soil temp


> Square Foot Gardening List - http://myweb.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>
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> http://on.linkexchange.com/?ATID=27&AID=2144
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>
> Hello everyone,
>
> The territorial seed catalog gives you the "Optimun soil temperature range
> for germination" and I don't know if they mean for indoor or outdoor
> germination. I want to try to warm up the soil early (outside) by laying
> black plastic in strategic areas that get more sun and heat than the
others.
> Then when the temperature is 40 degrees I could plant lettuce and
> spinach/chard/peas at 50 degrees. Do you think that might work? I'm very
new
> at this, so any advice would be welcome!
>
> Thanks!
> Annie in sunny Utah
> annie@esargent.org
>
>
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