I've started them in late February in Alpine 4500ft elev. But it's a real struggle until the soil temperature reaches 60F which doesn't happen here until about late March. To start a month early requires warming the soil with a mini greenhouse. Also helps to have black plastic or weed barrier on the soil surface. My best method for extra early is black surface and clear poly over that. Once the plants are up keep it below 100F by day and as warm as possible at night. So ventilation of the clear poly is essential on sunny days. A black weed barrier or black poly, plastc, is a huge plus for weed control. When your average of the high and low air temp reaches 60F, the soil should also. That would be a good time to plant. Houston reaches ave air temp of 60F about Febr 20. So you could plant now with soil warming or in a month to 6 weeks without. With all out effort I can advance melon first harvest by 4-6 weeks. But around here that requires careful attention until last frost usually in April but 24F in May last year. I did harvest a watermelon in June last year with 24F in May and a brutal hailstorm in June. But it was a lot of work and most were lost to the hail, all except one area covered with hail netting. This post was edited by fruitnut on Sat, Jan 11, 14 at 15:45

Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Wed, Jun 5, 13 at 20:37 You should put some cat food or tuna cans in the yard to measure the real output of your sprinklers. Time how long they run and see how much you get in the cans. Ideally you will apply 1 inch per week in the hottest heat of summer - AFTER THE SOD IS GROWING WELL. I did this in all my 9 zones for 15 mins & multiplying by 4 to a get a 60 mins equivalent. then recently set my Rain Bird controller with these assumptions & let it do its thing. But I am sceptical as it appears the RB algorithm likes to cycle & soak 2-3 times a week in a 10-15 min for each zone. That's is where I notice the discrepancy in philosophy of experienced lawn experts such as yourself. Until then you should water a little more frequently with the objective of getting the water deep in the soil and backing off on the frequency. Short bursts of water on a daily basis is the worst case. It encourages weeds and promotes disease. You should have been watering new sod 2x-3x per day for a short time each - just enough to keep the roots moist while they knit into the underlying soil. Allowing it to go every other day might have been a problem. Reality was the irrigation folks set the sprinklers initially to water deep & almost everyday during the grow-in period. We finally realized this one month in & went to the 'tuna can' inputs & cut back the watering ourselves. That said, the damage may have already been done as we currently see some spots that have yellowing & unevening & divots with no grass growth in our overall lawn. Can you clarify what you mean in red above please? A bit confused here as it appears there is some contradiction with your recommendations ?? With that in mind, adding new sod now should be okay. The sooner the better since your old new sod does not have deep roots yet. Doesn't this counter the conventional wisdom of only planting during early spring & early fall? Do you have a lot of shade? Just wondering why fescue instead of a fescue mix with Kentucky bluegrass or full KBG? Our house is on a new lot with no mature trees of note & is 90% unshaded.

Somewhere around Christmas is when I plant mine.

It's not so much the air temperatures as the soil temperatures that are important. Below I've linked Johnny's Selected Seeds online catalog. One of the things I love about this seed company is all the information they give you on growing. If you go to page 31, there is the guide to cukes. They give needed soil temperatures for direct sowing, including a chart of temperatures vs % germination and the statement that cuke seeds will not sprout if the soil is below 50 degrees and will only sprout very slowly at 68 degrees. They give similar type of info for squash and pumpkins on pg 96. At this time of year you'd be better starting them indoors where the soil will be warm enough for them to germinate, and then plant them out in a few weeks. You may find that your beans aren't too happy either. Another option would be to cover your soil for a couple of weeks with plastic sheets or spunbond row cover so that it warms up enough and then plant. Or do both so that by the time your potted starts are ready to plan, the soil is very warm. Here is a link that might be useful: Johnny's Online Catalog