Hello again,
As the title states, this is my first year growing (anything, not just peppers) and I currently have about a dozen plants under a 350w LED light. They are between an inch to three inches tall and most have four leaves, some are starting on six (two cotyledons + whatever)... so far so good.
My understanding is that it is safe to move outside once nighttime temps are above 55°F. According to the Farmer's Almanac for my ZIP, my last frost is around April 21, and first fall frost is around October 12, so give or take 174 growing days. Hopefully this is enough to bear fruit, assuming I can move outside.
My intent is just to container garden this year until I can get my yard figured out. That said, is there a certain size that the plants should be before moving outside? I'm worried because it seems to be very windy where I live... 20 to 40MPH winds, gusting all day, are common. I'm thinking fully mature plants would struggle under those conditions, let alone new sprouts. I mean, I have a fan blowing over them now, but this fan is far from being able to power a flailing-arm tube man.
Assuming I can put them outside with the wind at some point, how about hardening off? I'm at work all day, so I can't really set the plants out for an hour at a time without driving back and forth (which I don't really want to do to begin with). In a similar vein, is there an optimal location for plants outdoors like there is indoors, a.k.a the south facing window? The front of my house is south facing with a shaded porch. I'm thinking this could be used for hardening off as it gets partial sun a good chunk of the day. The back of my house (north-ish facing) has an un-shaded deck. This was my intended location for the plants.
Hopefully this make some sense... if you need any clarification, just let me know. As usual, any help is greatly appreciated!
As the title states, this is my first year growing (anything, not just peppers) and I currently have about a dozen plants under a 350w LED light. They are between an inch to three inches tall and most have four leaves, some are starting on six (two cotyledons + whatever)... so far so good.
My understanding is that it is safe to move outside once nighttime temps are above 55°F. According to the Farmer's Almanac for my ZIP, my last frost is around April 21, and first fall frost is around October 12, so give or take 174 growing days. Hopefully this is enough to bear fruit, assuming I can move outside.
My intent is just to container garden this year until I can get my yard figured out. That said, is there a certain size that the plants should be before moving outside? I'm worried because it seems to be very windy where I live... 20 to 40MPH winds, gusting all day, are common. I'm thinking fully mature plants would struggle under those conditions, let alone new sprouts. I mean, I have a fan blowing over them now, but this fan is far from being able to power a flailing-arm tube man.
Assuming I can put them outside with the wind at some point, how about hardening off? I'm at work all day, so I can't really set the plants out for an hour at a time without driving back and forth (which I don't really want to do to begin with). In a similar vein, is there an optimal location for plants outdoors like there is indoors, a.k.a the south facing window? The front of my house is south facing with a shaded porch. I'm thinking this could be used for hardening off as it gets partial sun a good chunk of the day. The back of my house (north-ish facing) has an un-shaded deck. This was my intended location for the plants.
Hopefully this make some sense... if you need any clarification, just let me know. As usual, any help is greatly appreciated!
