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misc Question about hardening off.

B

BCPepperDude

Hello. This is my first year starting my own seeds and I have a question about the hardening off stage. When you start the hardening process, do you bring the plants back inside into your tents and under your grow light? I'm a little worried about bringing pests inside into my grow room.

I have a deck upstairs which I plan to use for hardening off. It has a large sliding door and I can leave the plants inside the room leading onto the deck. I'm wondering if I should just leave them in this room near the sliding door when not outside?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers.
 
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my guess if you are doing hardening off, it's not fully necessary to put back in tent and under lights. that would only be needed if you wanted them to keep growing at "maximum speed".

the plants still need a normal day's light and typical indoor temps, so as long as the patio door is not blackout-curtained and the room is not deadly cold, they should be fine to stay there.

of course if you moved a grow light to that location to give some light and heat could only improve things.

pepper plants are pretty easy-going, they'll make do with whatever you give them, i reckon.
 
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BCPepperDude said:
Hello. This is my first year starting my own seeds and I have a question about the hardening off stage. When you start the hardening process, do you bring the plants back inside into your tents and under your grow light? I'm a little worried about bringing pests inside into my grow room.

I have a deck upstairs which I plan to use for hardening off. It has a large sliding door and I can leave the plants inside the room leading onto the deck. I'm wondering if I should just leave them in this room near the sliding door when not outside?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers.
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I typically start the harden off process about a week before plant out.

One I place them outside to harden off, they do not come back indoors.
 
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As soon as the outside soil temps are rising & night time air temps don't dip into the 40s it's outside time.
The reason for hardening off is to strengthen not weaken the plants, they should enjoy the sun the temps fresh air & wind.


Cold weather can hit anytime so be prepared to bring the plants back inside for light & warmth. Planting your plants out in soil that has reached 65F can make your whole season, too cool & your plants will stop growing for awhile. Be patient waiting for the right time with plants is the best way to ensure success. When we move the plants out at first we use a shade cloth for the first few days, pure sun can burn plants grown under artificial lights at first.
 
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I have too many to harden (until I finally get the hoop house functioning) so I've never done it. Guess I've been lucky - can't say NO losses but never much loss.

Might be worth trying an experiment to compare how well they do post-transplant with and without though.
 
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