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How to Determine When Your Soil is Ready for Spring Planting

As farmers, we understand that successful cultivation starts with the soil. It’s crucial to ensure that our soil is adequately prepared to support healthy plant growth and maximize yield. Having a plan in place prior to the planting season can help things go smoothly and get your crop off to a great start. Ensuring all of your fertility or weed management products ready to go will save time and let you get the planter rolling sooner when conditions are fit. Whether you are no-till planting or full conventional tillage, making sure soil conditions are ready for planting is key to maximizing planter performance and seed placement. Here are some key indicators to help determine soil readiness:

Temperature
Seed germination and even emergence is a key part of getting your crop off to a successful start to maximize yield potential at harvest. Besides watching the calendar, it is always important to make sure you have appropriate soil temperatures to prevent seed stress and poor germination. Seed chilling can occur as seedlings take their first drink of water when temperatures are too cold. A good tip if you are planning on planting into cool moist soils is to perform a saturated cold germ test on your seed ahead of time. This can help identify seed varieties that may be more susceptible to cool wet conditions. 

Soil Moisture
Making sure the soil moisture at your target planting depth can be critical to uniform germination for your crop. This is something that should be monitored closely to ensure you are not only planting seed in to warm moist soil, but also making sure your planting system is opening and closing the seed furrow properly to get good seed to soil contact. If conditions are not perfectly ideal getting out frequently to check or adjust equipment can make a large impact in getting your crop off to a good start at planting. 

Weather Conditions
Consider the upcoming weather forecast before planting. Avoid planting during periods of extreme weather, such as heavy rain or prolonged drought, which can stress young plants. Aim for stable weather conditions with warm temperatures and adequate moisture.


By paying attention to these key indicators, you can determine when your soil is ready for planting and set the stage for a successful growing season. Remember that soil preparation is a crucial step in the farming process, and investing time and effort into it will pay off in the form of healthy, productive crops. 

At DICKEY-john, we believe that your success is our success. Join us in reimagining agriculture for a brighter, more productive future. Let's grow together.

Plant with DICKEY-john’s seed sensor solutions: IntelliAg ISO 6, Hy Rate Plus Seed Sensor, Vigilense™ Blockage System, Recon Flow, and Daisy Chain Blockage System.

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