Hardening Off Plants (Concerns & Tips)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ค. 2024
- Hardening off plants is relatively simple, but deciding when and how to harden off seedlings may be a challenge. Gardener Scott discusses factors and concerns about hardening off and offers some tips. (Video #454)
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A couple of tricks not mentioned... Use the east side of the house for hardening off if sun exposure is your main concern. You can put the plants out and know about how long they'll be exposed to sun, so you won't have to worry quite so much about timing. The shadow of the house will eventually block direct sun, but the plants will still get some light and exposure to other outdoor conditions.
Also, use frost covers. In this case not for protecting in ground plants from frost, but in a hardening off space to protect plants in pots from sun, wind, rain, rapidly changing temperatures, etc. If you seal them up tight, you may also get some insect protection. Frost covers on hoops can provide protection from a lot of the issues mentioned in this video.
You've got that right! I only considered temperatures above freezing last year. I thought "I'll put my seedlings outside only during the day. Each day, I had fewer and fewer seedlings. The bugs were having a feast. They only had to eat two leaves leaving a leafless stem that would die. This year, small wire book shelf and a grow light. I had to give plants away. 😊
Since we live in coastal Northwest Washington, and have extremely unsettled weather gardening is a challenge. Quite often we get gale forced winds, or at least small craft advisories near the Strait. We were also 80° daytime last week, but 60° daytime this week with not a lot of rain for sometime. As far as I know deer are our biggest pest, but a fence saves us there. I'm trying 3 things this year, after my first gardening experience here last year. 1. Keep a journal of weather, plantings, and general observations. 2. Don,'t grow what you know won't grow, peppers, cucumbers, squash, and big onions. These were all failures last year, but tomatoes, beans, peas, lettuce, beets, chives, and potatoes all did well. 3. try a few experimental crops from the local nursery. This year is figs, and blueberries in containers. All of my garden is in raised beds, or containers. We may get a greenhouse, but for now we adapt with what we have.
I used to live in Ocean Shores. My partner refused to build the fence tall enough for the deer. Mr know it all. Had to get motion sensing deer squirters which work great till the plants grow too tall and the deer can hide from the squirters.
I did Hugelkulture under my beds to help retain moisture. I gathered truckloads of bull kelp off the beach and used that in it. Plants loved it. Worked great.
I live in Colorado as well (in the Denver area)! Every year I have a massive container garden on my patio. This year I was able to start around May 1st. I have around 47 peppers! Everything is surviving (and hardened off), but night time temps have been preventing them from taking off. Looking forward to next week, we have temps in the upper 70's and night temps around 50!
That dog was really getting his dig on. 😂🦮
Thanks Scott. Been taking mine in and out and in and out with all our rain, wind and hail in COS. Soon...
I've been carting plants in and out for several weeks now as our daytime temps got really high but it's still below 50 at night. My cucurbits have been out all day from the second they popped up out of the soil. Unless we get another setback it looks like Monday is my plant all the things day! I was impatient my first year growing from seed and saw a little sunscald first hand so I didn't mind the effort this year and it's been nice to sit out with the babies and watch over them.
Gardner Scott - thanks so much for the knowledge you shared over the years, I'm a better gardener because of that. I used your idea for using cattle fencing like a trellis in my raised planting beds. A few years back I put a good shade cloth over the cattle fencing over one of the planting beds using zip ties to fasten it. I then put all my seedlings in there for one week. After that they could be transplanted no problem. No sun burn on the eggplants or tomatoes. It really works, if the nighttime temp ever gets too low you can still bring them in, so far that hasn't happened to me. I live in the Berkshires in Massachusetts, Zone 5, elevation 1,200 feet. Thanks again for all the help, you rock !!!!
This was amazingly helpful. It's my first year of doing serious vegetable garden from seed. Thank you very specifically for the answer to "Do I have to start everything over?" question. Showing the size of the plants was also just what I needed to compare to my starts. Thank you.
In my garden I often bring tiny plants outside, particularly second round peppers or watermelons later in the year. I find if they germinate inside and go outside immediately I can get away with minimal hardening off. The tiny plants seem to be best for this. Sometimes it'll take a day or two, or none at all.
I had never heard of 'hardening off' a plant until last year. I always bought my plants, and simply planted them. They did great. This year my tomato plants got 2 days of 'hardening off' - sort of - because of wind and thunderstorms. On the 3rd day they were planted outside because I don't have enough sunlight to support them indoors, and my house will not support grow lights. Daytime temps were above 70, the soil temp was a little above 60, and night time temps were consistently above 50. They are trellised to help protect them from the Wyoming wind, but they will either grow and produce, or die. It is what it is.
Thank You for the tips on hardening off. I have been tweaking my method and am pretty happy with the way it’s going. I only wish the night time temps would get a little more consistently over 55 degrees.
Over the last few years here (Ontario) it seems like spring is vanishing. We've been going from way too cold and wet to begin hardening-off and then suddenly way too hot and devastating sun. Rarely get a stretch of good hardening-off weather. I get impatient and end up having the first couple leaf tiers burn up, but the newer growth comes healthly and resilient, so everything is fine eventually, but maybe I loose a week of progress.
We are going from cold to hot, hot to cold, and are all over the map. I am just going to hold off for a while still.
We are in COS and our rain gauge had 5 inches during the storm you referenced! My cool weather crops have exploded since they love this weather. Today we had an inch in about 20 minutes. Our ground is SO saturated. I've been hardening off my tomatoes and peppers and I have a couple in pots in a greenhouse tent. It's a lot of work taking them in and out but well worth it in our short season.
Sometimes you rush to get plants in. Unfortunately you are going to set the plant back weeks to heal from all the damage. Weeks you could have just waited in the first place. My potatoes here in CO are usually pretty hardy to all weather. As long as they are sewed directly in a raised bed and not indoors.
My advice when hardening tomato plants off would be to space them out a bit around that time. Otherwise they could end up leggy, fighting each other for light, even with a grow light directly above.
I'm mostly just happy to see your shishito plant looking so small. Mine are the same size and I was worried something was wrong.
We're in Lakewood, and yes, this rain is wild! I just repotted my young tomato plants into canvas bags... we are building a garden bed within a week or two. I'm hoping they are okay in this rain tonight! They've been doing okay the last few nights, and were outside at the nursery. I started a bunch of seeds inside this week... thanks for the advice!
Thanks Scott!
I just moved from a zone 2 with a last frost date of June 10 to a zone 4 with a last frost of may 15. It's nearly 30C already.
Going to be a good year, but some new challenges.
It is funny, when I started my first garden back in 1970 I never heard of hardening off. When I grew seeds, when they were tall enough to plant I just planted. Sometimes in the morning with the hot sun burning them. I never had one plant die. My garden was perfect and I never sprayed for bugs because we never had any: one exception vine borer once on my zucchini. Every year I supplied half the neighbors with zukes they were coming out of my ears. Now I moved down south and if I get one zuke per season. I had to get creative and grow other squash resistant to bugs. You only grow one potato pot.? I am alone and I am growing 10 or more pots of potatoes. I just start them outside before the last frost and never lost any. One year I left potatoes in the ground and they grew through the northern winter and I had potatoes the next year. So all the rules in the world are not always necessary. Gardening is very interesting. I love your videos thanks for sharing.
Aahhh..... gardening in the mountains (real mountains ;) ) is such a joy, right? Considering putting tomatoes out at last, though we can still get snow in June. Of course, it will be around 90F today, so there's that. Shadecloth goes up at the same time.
I def did my too soon this year. Thanks for this timely video. Round # 2!!
I commented on Eli & Kates video about hardening off, and some of what you mentioned here is what I was referring to about the soil and air temperatures. I really do believe that as long as the outside conditions are very similar, it causes less shock to the plants roots and they are more suitable to survive. Even when repotting, I make sure to place my small pots in the soil I'll be using to repot with and allow the plants roots to come to the same temperature gradually before I actually repot them.
This is just the video I needed right now. Thank you!
Very informative video! Thanks Gardner Scott!
Missed ya on Monday
in west wales rain is always an issue except when it snows
I set up a shelter of 60/40 shade cloth with several tables below to harden off my plants. I can easily move them around on sunny days, as not to burn them. Unfortunately, on cold nights I am hauling in a ton of plants.
Stay Well Gardener Scott, missed last Mondays live stream, hope your travels went well.
Thank you for sharing Scott. I have learnt that l am taking my seedlings out too small. I hope your indoor garden is going well. I am enjoying my indoor strawberries, tomatoes, watermelons, potatoes and rock melons. Best wishes, Jason from Melbourne Australia.
We had three thunderstorms I a row and I got locked out in the hail trying to rescue my plant babies😂
Thank you
Great video!!! Nearly ready for first small harvest here in Texas.
I just wait for a few overcast days and chuck them out there.
Great info❣️❣️
I have a bunch of micro dwarf tomatoes hanging out on my deck against the house. It's a nice spot - morning sun, but shade in the afternoon, and their pots are partially protected by the big rose bush pots around them. I've been taking them in if it looks like it's going to storm. So far so good - they're looking very perky. Tonight will be their first night left outside. Last night was too chilly.
I'm in the southern metro Denver area. I transplanted 3 tomatoes last weekend after the rains. The low has been around 50°F at night. The botanical interests black krim and San Marzano seed packets say "Transplant when air temperature is 45°F or warmer, usually 1 to 2 weeks after your average last frost date." I haven't transplanted the chilis yet since I have read they need 55°F.
Nah, I harden off all my tomatoes and cucumbers and so on when it's at least 40-45. I've never had damage, even with the cucurbits.
Very good video
I get too impatient. I did stick half of my tomatoes in a shaded area where they were able to get a breeze with the unusual heat we are having in WA. They did well for a couple days so I put them in the ground after a couple days. They seem to be doing well.
I wish I was retired. Keeping an eye on my plants while they harden off is a real problem for me. I'm at work all day. But your video is very informative, as always. I just need more time in the garden. :-)
Thanks!
Thank you, Pat!
Thank you for voicing all the thoughts I'm thinking as I stare at my tomatoes and peppers 😂 Do I pot them up? Do I put them out? So many factors!! Great video!
I love your videos ! Wonderful and helpful information. I just watched your video on using stock troughs for raised beds. Was wondering if planting Cherokee Purple tomatoes using these would be a good idea, and if so, what type of trellis you would recommend ? Thanks for your help and guidance.
Tomatoes in a trough can work well. Tall stakes can work as a trellis. I also use posts and twine for a Florida Weave as I show in this video: th-cam.com/video/gSw3p5ebWu4/w-d-xo.html
I don’t know what to do with the La nino-El nino war. It was 24* last nite at 4 am this morn..
Thanks for the hardening off tips!
FYI , I tried 4’ (5000k) LED lights this spring, being careful to keep them at the recommended distance and they weren’t looking as healthy as previous years. So I went back to what worked before and bought some new fluorescent bulbs, T-8 (6500k) which emitted 2900 lumens per bulb (pretty good) and my tomatoes and peppers quickly improved and are looking really great. I personally don’t recommend LEDs, at least for seedlings.
What happens when you go from 50° to 80° almost overnight in Texas? If we don’t plant early it’s 100° before you know it.
It is still important to harden off gradually so the plants don't get that change overnight.
Xin chào anh lời chào từ Vietnam.
I’m a new gardener. what can I plant with strawberries so that I don’t have only strawberries in the bed to avoid pests?
Lettuce and spinach are annuals that can help disguise berries with their leaves. Chives is a perennial that may deter some pests. Herbs like thyme and dill are good for attracting beneficial predatory insects.
Off subject, but what are the toppers and hoses that you have on your GreenStalk containers? Are they something you got from the manufacturer?
Yes, those come with the watering kit they offer. I show the installation in this video: th-cam.com/video/r5CFrJ6nS6E/w-d-xo.html
@@GardenerScott Thank you, Scott!
What do you mean by: hardening off?
I explain the process in this video: th-cam.com/video/P9ov_BeQsus/w-d-xo.html
Shhhhhhh don’t say the S word! 😂
Seriously! I live in the Pacific NW in the US and have been battling those darn things tooth and nail! :P
And the fungus + fungus gnats, but I could go on and on about those...