Black Plastic Mulch Application
Coming from Texas where suppressing soil temps was the goal, I am not used to having to try to keep soil temps elevated. But if you wanna grow peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, or melons in PA, keeping soil temps elevated is what you gotta do. To help you in this pursuit, you can apply 'black plastic mulch' which is basically big ole rolls of black plastic that put down over rows that you've hilled the dirt up in the middle (see pics below). The trick is to wait till after a good rain to get your hill an initial soaking then put the plastic down and secure it either with dirt, rocks, or pegs. Wait a week or so for the earthworms and other dirt dwellers to re-stabilize, then go down the row and cut a hole at the spacing rate for whatever you want to plant there. So far we've put in tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants. Sometime next week, I'll put some cucumber and melon seeds in and see how hard it is to plant from seed using the sheets.
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Brett - do you have to keep the soil temp up because the seeds themselves won't germinate unless the soil is a certain temperature? And you put down black mulch a few days before planting because it takes a few days to get the temp up? Or because something chemically/organically goes on in warmer soil that the plants need (hence the mention of earth-dwellers)?
those type plants do best in soil temps above 80F, the mulch goes down early to allow the soil temps to rise and stabilize.