Hardening off plants, why it's not often necessary
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2024
- Hardening off plants is often presented as a necessity, but it's not. I know from long experience.
Almost all of my plants come straight from greenhouse to outside, but often with fleece over just at this cool time of year.
On some scenarios, hardening off is worthwhile. When plants have been raised under lights, and for tender plants like cucurbits (later in the spring).
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Thank you for confirming Charles that me being lazy and not hardening off consistently or even bothering is actually alright ❤😂
I like to use @MIgardener lazy hardening off. Look at the weather for 2 or 3 cloudy days, somewhat rainy is even better, and just put them out in the ground. No harsh direct sun but they still get used to the elements. I've done this for a few years now and have had no issues.
Excellent!
This is essentially what I do, but I use row cover as well when I plant any new seedlings. It is a light shade cloth and protects from pouring rain on new seedlings. I just did this with 1,700 lettuce plants the last few days. Got a little too much rain and some signs off shock from the lettuce, but they will rebound. In other words no biggie.
Always good to see you! I am still without a home and garden and I've missed 16 years? I do not even have as much as a deck or a place to put a flower pot. You only get so many gardens and it's painful. I'm so happy to see somebody who has it going on.❤
I've never hardened any plants off and they do just fine, even warmth loving plants as long they don't go out too early they do great.
Nice to hear
Interesting. I would love to see a study of hardening off vs not hardening off without fleece.
I do the same, for the same plants,... the fleece is good for warmth and sunburn
Again Mr Dowding,
Your continued shared knowledge. Becomes a welcomed balm. Soothing, and placating the grazes. Acquired within a growing environment.
Thank you Eleanor :)
Thank you Charles.
Thanks Charles. Saves me a job.
Glad to help
Excellent info as always, thank you! 🌱
💚
Plants aside, that is a great outfit Charles.
Haha thanks, chosen by Edward my son :)
I love the pop of red 😊
Thank you!
On our farm we lay the trays on the ground under fleece for one day before planting under fleece in the field.
Nice solution!
Great idea
Yup my tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash are suffering from me not doing this right now and I’m trying to save them with a sun shade
Oh dear, sounds v hot
I would like to try cold frames. I already have conduit hoops with greenhouse plastic, and I will also use Ag-19. A foating row cover can provide effective protection against frosts and even heavy freezes. Also known as garden fabric or fleece.
Sounds good and yes row covers are so useful
I grow all my seedlings under lights (don’t have a greenhouse unfortunately :( ) and hardening off is definitely necessary for me-I’ve scorched quite a few plants over the years and I think it’s just from the difference in amount of light from the lights vs. sun. Curious about your thoughts on growing indoors :)
Thanks for sharing this, Alex, and it could be the wind as well as the sunshine, depending on your climate. Here, for example, it's often not sunny, but there are cold winds and that's why I use covers over spring plantings, which mitigate the change for plants. Having said that, it's more difficult with what you're doing compared to growing in the natural light of a greenhouse.
Agreed. I also use lights, and even with a ton of it (432 W of HO T5's over each set of 4 trays) they can get scorched, but more than anything the cold can decimate them. Lost a tray of kale bc I hardened off too fast this year, while the other two (same var.) are planted out. Just bc it experienced a couple hours of too intense cold, too early.
There is a difference between growing under lights and a greenhouse. I set up a cattle panel hoop house at the end of the growing season last year. A few early plants, if very young, did get a bit of leaf scorch last week. The temperature swings where I am have been really wild this year, some days very strong sunlight and temps nearly 80F after clouds and lows in the upper 20F temps. I'm often carrying trays from indoors to outside. As for tomato stem strength if not going outdoors, I have a fan I run to mimic breezes. This is the first year I'm selling as a grower and small scale nursery, and am already tired, and it's the beginning of the season!
@@JS-mh1fh GOOD POINT
always run a fan to strengthen seedlings. Good luck! I am still increasing beds, always want more!
Interesting. Me too, but I always do it the lazy way, just stick them in a shady location and in a week, transplant them
Handy short. Glad I've taken by tomatoes, chillis and sweet peppers in tonight as we've a low of -2c predicted ❄️
Thanks, and well done!
Oh my goodness ~ thank you thank you thank you
Thank you Charles. I agree but have yet to find a fleece that doesn’t disintegrate before my very eyes.
30gsm thickness
Appreciated, thank you.
Where I live, hardening off is necessary. I've killed a few flats grown under lights by not doing so completely. Temperature doesn't seem to be nearly as big an issue here compared to direct sunlight causing leaf burn. I'm located in the U.S., southern Indiana.
Thank you for sharing this! So different.
To answer the question
"Yes"
I love gardening but i don't have much space like you.
Try vertical gardening, start small.
I'll try this year.Thanks for your suggestion.
it is not temps that hurt them but the wind. they have been in a protected environment and suddlenly it feels like gale force winds.
So right, and that's why in early spring as I say, we cover plants with row cover. From about late May however I find that most vegetables are fine to be outside without protection, straight from the greenhouse.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig same is true in winter. many plants can survive usb-zero temps. what kills them is being frozen and smashed together by the wind. When they defrost they collapse.
Much different going from a greenhouse, with natural light, to outside, vs from in a house under artificial lights to outside. Not everyone has the luxury of a greenhouse and therefore the hardening off process is a lot more important.
Yes, I say that in the video.
I'm wanting to save work for people who think they have to do it in every situation
And “outside” is one of the mildest climates in the world too.
I am in Ohio and we get a lot of very bright sun compared to what you get. It is more the sun than the cold that creates a need to harden off. I have killed a few plants by skipping this step.
Interesting. Maybe of plants grown under lights? Because we can have weather like that and plants from the greenhouse or polytunnel are adapted to it.
same here but i am in france, its often too sunny for plants to go directly outside without hardening off.
It depends on why you grow if you're doing it to save money don't cut corners. Invest in durable long term equipment and fertlizers
If it's a hobby and you don't care if you have some bare spots in the garden or don't get fruit when everyone else is or at all. Rock on.
i think going from warmer temps to cold isn't nearly as big a concern as going from warmer temps to hot.
if i planted those seedlings in our summer weather, they'd all be dead before the sun went down. hardening them off is absolutely necessary if i can't grow from seed.
Interesting! For sure in hot sun as happened here in 2018, I used a mesh cover, whether hardened or not
If your not hardening off, you should still make sure the plants don't get sunburn by covering them. I did not harden off some peppers and tomatoes i planted a little more than a week ago, and they got sunburn.Will not make this mistake again.
Oh dear. I guess you are in a low latitude because here that does not happen :)
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Yes i live in france, yesterday it was 28°C, so i put a cover on newly planted plants.Great channel Charles keep it going!👍👍👍
Definitely have to do peppers if you live in windy places.
So true
when’s the earliest you would put out chillies and tomatoes
In UK usually after last frost in June time. Also then depends on when you sowed as they may still be small plants by this time so you can plant out a bit later.
I use this method often saves so much time.
Here Kenny, around 20th May, see th-cam.com/video/4b8nP1Y_Js4/w-d-xo.html
The last clip looks like the pea seeds are sitting on top of the soil. Do you plant the pea seeds on top of the soil?
No, we push them into the compost, but that batch for some reason shot straight up out! They are growing fine and we shall transplant them a little deeper
How about (occasional light) frost? I have started seedlings indoors of peas, beetroot, spinage and salats. I put them out in a little greenhouse (80x120cm) last week, but had some light frost coming by these days. First I had fleece over, but then took them in yesterday, afraid/unknowing if they could cope a little light frost - if it even freezes in the greenhouse I don't know. I measured the soil temperature to around 8 degrees C in the weekend, so I guess that'll keep it somewhat warm. The peas stayed out though, seemed the strongest, but just guessing. Live in Denmark.
In my experience they'd be fine, as long as it's not a hard frost you're all good
@@phifediggy9659 Do you think I could have left all the seedlings out there, salats, beetroot etc? And what would be seen as a hard frost (< -5 C for days, or?). Thanks.
-5C is close to the limit. Depends also for how long the freeze lasts. Good luck Henrik
I’m a bit confused as hardening off has to do with unfiltered sunlight and Charles was talking about temperatures.
Yes I mention temperature as the most significant factor, in this part of the world at least. And for sure there are other aspects to it, including light and wind. That's why in early spring, I recommend using covers over new transplants, which is another way of not needing to harden off.
ThTs what I do lol!
A 2lb meatloaf only took 35-40 minutes to cook? Really?
I think you're on the wrong page!