Being at work all day I can’t put my plants out for 2 then 4 then 6 then 8 hours etc. I can get up early and put them outside for 1 or 2 hours before I leave for work. Other than that by the time I get home there is not much available. The other option is I can leave them in my one window that gets actual direct sun light facing west. It gets about 3 hours of the setting sun. Would the sun coming through the window count towards hardening hours or does the Low-E glass filter out the strong rays I need to harden the plants. Thanks.
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sun Can you harden plants with sunlight through a window?
- Thread starter Beaglestorm
- Start date
I hate the spring shuffle but the only other option is filtered sunlight as those above this post has stated.
i have my plants in a south facing window and it has bleached out some green in some of my plants. the hardening off process is not just direct sunlight - or like Edward Smith(author of the vegetable gardener's bible) says, hardening off is like little boot camp for vegetables. wind and other elements are also very important to harden your plants. last year, my poor tepin, that was 2 years old, lost all its leaves, 3 times, first in may due to high aggressive winds, second in july due to hail then again in september due to cold, it never produced 1 pod last year. good news it's still alive today and going into its 3rd year. agressive winds can put young plants through a lot of stress as i found out last year and decided to all my container plants in totes for this extra protection.
good luck.
good luck.
Hi Beaglestorm,
Trying to harden your plants off through just a window alone will not get them hardened off to the point you can put them outside without some sort of setback.
Being indoors, your plants are protected from daytime highs and those night time low temperatures.
Also unless you're running a fan over your plants they will not be exposed to those drying winds that can wreak havoc on tender plants.
And depending on your windows, number of panes, UV filtering, how clean the windows are etcetera, your plants will have some of the sunlight diluted down for them indoors, and they will still need to be exposed to and adjusted to the sun's direct rays.
One thing you might be able to do is place them in a mostly shaded and protected place where they will get some of the earlier or later day sun, where the sun's intensity is lower than those full midday sunlight levels.
And try to find a sheltered place to keep the wind from drying out your tender plants, until they have been sufficiently toughened up to grow on their own outside.
dvg
Trying to harden your plants off through just a window alone will not get them hardened off to the point you can put them outside without some sort of setback.
Being indoors, your plants are protected from daytime highs and those night time low temperatures.
Also unless you're running a fan over your plants they will not be exposed to those drying winds that can wreak havoc on tender plants.
And depending on your windows, number of panes, UV filtering, how clean the windows are etcetera, your plants will have some of the sunlight diluted down for them indoors, and they will still need to be exposed to and adjusted to the sun's direct rays.
One thing you might be able to do is place them in a mostly shaded and protected place where they will get some of the earlier or later day sun, where the sun's intensity is lower than those full midday sunlight levels.
And try to find a sheltered place to keep the wind from drying out your tender plants, until they have been sufficiently toughened up to grow on their own outside.
dvg
Thanks everybody.... I will continue with the 2 hours in the morning and then it looks like I will have to enlist the help of my wife... I will need to be a little more explicit this time than I was when I asked her to move the fan on my plants. LOL It's only for a week or so .. How bad can it get? (begin playing menacing music in the background) If the darn wind would just calm down to less than 20mph I would just leave them out in the semi-shade.
That is a great idea..... going to search my yard at the office for stuff I can use to build something. Probably have to buy the shade cloth .. but everthing else I should be able to find. This way the wife only has to cover and uncover them or I can just leave them covered all the time ..if it is very windy. Another thing to add to mistakes I made in 2011... "No hardening plan of action"
