Purdue Extension Service

Vanderburgh County, Indiana

Wet Spring and Vegetable Gardens

By Larry Caplan, Extension Horticulture Educator, Vanderburgh County, IN

For the Evansville Courier and Press, May 24, 2009

Last weekend, I spent a couple of hours helping the good folks at the Line Street Baptist Church get their community garden planted. The soil was a good bit wetter than I would have liked, but we are definitely coming up fast on the cutoff dates for getting a spring garden planted.

Wet soil is also holding back a lot of farmers from planting. In fact, the following discussion was written about a week or so ago by Purdue corn specialist Bob Nielsen:

"We scuff around the fields in mid-April, dig a few spadefuls of soil, squeeze the soil into a ball like the soil scientists tell us to do, and then agree that the soil is too wet to work or plant.

"Around the first of May, we scuff around the fields, dig a few spadefuls of soil… and then agree that the soil is too wet to work or plant.

"Again in mid-May, we scuff around the fields, dig a few spadefuls of soil…and then agree that the soil is maybe just about right to work or plant, but we’ll give it a few more days.

"By late May, we scuff around the fields, dig a few spadefuls of soil…and then agree that the soil is just as wet as it was back in mid-April, but maybe we ought to be working ground and planting anyway."

The problem with working wet soil, especially soils with high clay contents, is that they easily compact. Compaction greatly reduces the amount of air and water than can move downward in the soil. Roots of all plants can only grow where they receive the right mix of air and water, and compaction can greatly affect this.

Additionally, trying to dig up wet soil will produce large clods of dirt. These clods will eventually dry into bricks, which you will then spend the rest of the summer trying to smash apart.

So, we really don't want to be working wet garden (or farm) soil.

On the other hand, waiting too late can have consequences, too. For example, it's way too late to plant cool-season vegetables, such as cabbage, lettuce, peas, and greens. These plants will wither away or quickly bolt (go to seed) in the hot weather to come. In hindsight, we probably should have "mudded them in" back in March.

All is not lost, though. Seeds for cool season crops can be stored in a cool, dry location, and then planted later this summer for a fall crop.

And there's good news for farmers! As recently reported by Dr. Neilsen in the April 16 "Corny News," late planting is not the absolute crisis that we've always believed. While late planting CAN reduce yields, other factors throughout the summer, such as temperature, rainfall, and pests, play a bigger role.

For more information on soil, moisture, and planting, contact the Purdue Extension Service at (812) 435-5287.