lighting Hardening off after high intensity lighting

AJ Drew

AJ Drew

Did an experiment.  Took a few plants from under a hps lamp to under the sun without any hardening off period.  Three days, no burn.  Of course I waited till the temperature would allow it.  Did the same with a few plants under florescent... burn, burn, and burn.
 
My plants were under twin 400-watt HPS. They'd be dead if I did what you did. How many hours under the sun were your plants, and what was the temp?
 
A couple years ago I planted the whole garden right from inside. A week of cloudy days followed. No burn. The next year, same thing, full bright sun for a week....death came fast. Then I learned about hardening.
 
Roguejim said:
They'd be dead if I did what you did. How many hours under the sun were your plants, and what was the temp?
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1000 watt HPS with some light coming from a 1000 watt MH and probably some leaking from the flourescents.  But mainly the HPS.  I gradually upped the time to 24 hours to see what would happen.  By the time I got to 24 hours, temp was almost 90 degrees.  Lights about three feet from top of plants.  Strong fan keeps things moving so not much burn.  Not the normal way i do things, wanted to experiment.
 
Justaguy said:
A couple years ago I planted the whole garden right from inside. A week of cloudy days followed. No burn. The next year, same thing, full bright sun for a week....death came fast. Then I learned about hardening.
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Bright and sunny here.  I really think the volume of light conditioned them.  But it was just an experiment.  Normally things go from inside to a heated box on a trailer.  It has white plastic over it that I remove every day for a bit longer each day.  After that, I move the thing from under a tree into the open.

This year, grew more than fit in the trailer.  Been rotating, but now that temp is fine I am putting things under a tree for a while.  Every couple days, I move them a bit more out the shade.  Hope to buy shade cloth for next year, but for now I gotta red neck it.
 
I did the direct sunlight for a little at a time thing the first year I hardened. Now they go in carport for a week with no direct sun, just ambient and the ever important UV rays that come with it. This Saturday they will go in full sun for good.
 
     Mine went from lights to yard with 1/2 shade on the west side..Only reason I did not let them hang on the porch longer is my 10  day forecast had chaaostly nces of rain every day.Which in Iowa this time of year means mostly cloudy to full clouds all day.So far no real damage.
 
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