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Post by daylilydude on Jan 16, 2018 6:39:10 GMT -5
How long do you give your seedlings time to get used to being outside before you plant them out?
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Post by tomike on Jan 16, 2018 6:57:03 GMT -5
Generally speaking for tomatoes, about one week. On days that are very windy, they don't go out and stay in the garden shed..... On the fist few days, a very gradual exposure to the elements starting with only one hour on the first day......
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Post by spike on Jan 16, 2018 9:15:53 GMT -5
Okay I have one of these! I start my seeds in the house. Eventually it is time to move the plants out to the portable green house in the garage. Our garage is separate from the house and not heated. Makes it easy to see when the plants are ready to go in the garden. And with our wack-a-doo weather it sure helps.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jan 16, 2018 9:47:37 GMT -5
About a week to 10 days here.
My back porch faces east, so that's where I start hardening them off. Day 1 I bring them out in the afternoon so they only get indirect light and no direct sun. I locate them on the porch where they will get only a couple of hours of very early morning sun on Day 2. Then I move them around on the porch for another couple of days so they get a bit more of the morning sun each day. Then they go out on the pool deck to a spot where they get sun all morning and afternoon shade. Then I move them a bit out of the house's shadow each day so they gradually get more of the afternoon sun.
If we have a very cool (<40 degrees) night during the hardening off period I will bring them back inside overnight.
The most common problem I have with hardening off is sunburn - even in early March the UV here is dangerously intense for plants that have been raised indoors. So I let the plants tell me how fast to expose them to more sunlight.
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Post by paulf on Jan 16, 2018 9:55:51 GMT -5
A week or ten days here also. Like Laura, sunburn is the biggest problem. The seedlings get dappled shade and not full sun for the first several days. At night they go into an unheated garage and back out in the daytime. It begins with four hours out per day and then increases. Dappled shade to full sun. I like to plant into the garden in late afternoon so they have an evening and night to acclimate to their new home. Still, sun scald can be a problem but most plants survive and recover.
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Post by ladymarmalade on Jan 16, 2018 11:07:10 GMT -5
I can do it in three days if needed.
The first day is 2 hours, second day is 4-5 hours, and the third day I leave them out and see how they fare. Usually there is a bit of sunburn (especially on the peppers) but they tend to recover. If I have the time, I will make it take longer. Start with 2 hours, then double it every day until the plants are out 24/7. The last couple years, though, it's been do-or-die moments for me to get my plants in the ground.
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Post by ahntjudy on Jan 16, 2018 11:15:34 GMT -5
Similar here, increasing the 'time out' each day...
I also rig up a cover for them using just a bunch of wooden stakes hammered in, draping floating row cover as a sun shade over the stakes...have the row cover large enough so it can drop down on the sides, if need be, to protect from too much wind... Pretty much stays in place utilizing clip clothes pins here and there...
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Jan 16, 2018 11:17:49 GMT -5
I can do it in three days if needed. The first day is 2 hours, second day is 4-5 hours, and the third day I leave them out and see how they fare. Usually there is a bit of sunburn (especially on the peppers) but they tend to recover. If I have the time, I will make it take longer. Start with 2 hours, then double it every day until the plants are out 24/7. The last couple years, though, it's been do-or-die moments for me to get my plants in the ground. Pretty much the same!
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Post by brownrexx on Jan 16, 2018 11:42:05 GMT -5
I only have a small light set up for starting seeds so when the plants get too tall for the maximum height of the lights, then I pot them up into 4" pots and they start to live outside on my covered front porch. If it is still cold at night then I bring them inside at night.
Obviously those are not tomatoes in my first picture. They are my onion seedlings. I didn't have a pic with tomato seedlings.
You can see in the second picture that there is sun towards the front of the porch and shade in the rear so I gradually expose them to more sun each day until they can spend the entire day in the sun. I can pull them back towards the house if it gets too windy or stormy. Eventually they are living outside on the porch full time until there is no more danger of frost and I plant them in the garden.
DSC04178 by Brownrexx, on Flickr
DSC00735 by Brownrexx, on Flickr
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Post by september on Jan 16, 2018 11:46:53 GMT -5
No set number of days, because they start seeing some real sun as soon as weather is in the '50s.
I start seeds under lights in the house, but I shuttle trays out to my greenhouse during the day as soon as they start to sprout - weather permitting, because I don't heat the greenhouse until I plan to leave them out overnight. So on cold cloudy days when the greenhouse won't reach the mid-50's they stay in the house under lights if they are still in the group germination trays.
Once I have them transplanted into individual cups, I don't have room under lights, but by then I can start heating the greenhouse if nights stay above 24F.
Once they are in the greenhouse, I move the trays outside into the grass for a few hours every day if it's sunny and at least in the 50's. Since they are already used to greenhouse sun, they can tolerate more exposure than coming directly from under lights. How fast they get outside all day, depends on how many cloudy and cold days there are in between outings. So for at least the last three weeks before planting, they are outside every day and back in the greenhouse at night, unless it's too cold or raining. I'm a firm believer in getting them outside into real conditions as soon as possible, no coddling here!
But yes, it does get tiresome shuttling those trays in and out!
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Post by paquebot on Jan 16, 2018 20:29:38 GMT -5
Peppers go from the house to what I call the "hot box" when they have 3 or 4 true leaves. It's like a cold frame except that it's all metal with a Plexiglas cover. Cover raised during the day and they stiffen quickly. Exposed to the cool air but protected from the wind. Tomatoes are hardened right from emergence as they are planted outside in a cold frame. Same with all brassica.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by daylilydude on Jan 16, 2018 20:53:59 GMT -5
Peppers go from the house to what I call the "hot box" when they have 3 or 4 true leaves. It's like a cold frame except that it's all metal with a Plexiglas cover. Cover raised during the day and they stiffen quickly. Exposed to the cool air but protected from the wind. Tomatoes are hardened right from emergence as they are planted outside in a cold frame. Same with all brassica. So Martain when do you start your pepper seeds again?
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Post by Gianna on Jan 16, 2018 21:04:03 GMT -5
I start seeds in the house, and very shortly after germinating, they go outside, on benches, in full sun. No sunburn, no hardening off. They are covered with wire cages to prevent bird damage however.
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Post by paquebot on Jan 17, 2018 9:43:12 GMT -5
My peppers are started in late-February and have always been over heat. (House at 63º would take forever to germinate.) Used to use pane of Plexiglas over a box which had a 60w bulb for heat. There was enough heat to have 80º soil temperature. "Modernized" 4 or 5 years ago and now use proper heating mats.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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