All across Texas, warmer temperatures are beckoning farmers to their fields and many to their gardens. But it still may be too early to plant many Texas crops. All plants have an optimum individual planting temperature that is based on soil temperatures at an 8-inch depth.
Gardeners are all too often influenced by a few warm days and a touch of spring fever.
Not enough soil warmth at planting gets crops off to a poor start. Enter Warrick's weather station. The odd-looking contraption, resembling a grade schooler's science fair project, stands perched on a rickety, homemade trailer on Chris Bubenik's farm. The weather station's earthen probes are placed right into a row of Bubenik's field east of San Angelo. The resulting information is phoned directly from the field via a cellular phone to Warrick's computer back in town.