Is planting date important all over Iowa?
No matter where you are in Iowa, early planting will always give you greatest potential to achieve the highest yield. However, there are cases where early planting will yield the same as mid-May. This is mostly associated with establishment problems such as soil crusting if you do too much tillage. The conclusions from the studies were that there is a 79 percent probability that you will get a statistically greater yield by planting early compared to the “old” recommendation of mid-May or a soil temperature of minimum 55-60 °F.
