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Quick question about hardening.

S

shamair28

If I start out seedling in a grow box with a fan that cools and simulates a breeze and I have the lights off during the night. When the last frost is over, how should I harden them? My last frost isn't until late April to early May.
 
Everybody does it differently ...I personally over a 5-7 day period bring them out side for a few hours exposing them to sun etc more and more each day...it's not an exact science and I think everyone does it differently ...
 
I live over in the uk and although we don't have extremes of heat or cold our weather is very unreliable.

I sowed my seeds back in February in a propagator and as soon as the seedlings where upright I moved them to the conservatory. The conservatory is south facing so gets around 6 hours of usable sun (weather permitting) in late February. By day it can reach the mid teens (Celsius) but drop down to 1-4C on a night...

Seedlings where kept in a plastic non heated propagator, primarily to protect from aphids, away from the windowsill... Once the first sets of true leaves had established I moved the plants closer to the windowsill, by now it's late March and the sun is noticeably stronger in the south of the UK.

My last season plants are brought in and left to do their thing over the winter - this winter I was still picking fresh pods of my naga after Xmas :D

Basically I don't think fancy lights and fans are needed unless your wanting to harvest industrial sized crops by May/ June
 
I put my plants in a polyurethane metal frame greenhouse when it's about 50 degrees out and I hang white sheets over and sides while day . For a week and then they are ready ! Learned this from a very good friend on tho . Strat96 . Worked great !
 
sp33d said:
Everybody does it differently ...I personally over a 5-7 day period bring them out side for a few hours exposing them to sun etc more and more each day...it's not an exact science and I think everyone does it differently ...
Click to expand...
+1. I normally start the first couple days on the screened in porch or under a shade tree even. Then increase sun over a week or so. Good luck!!
 
scotchnaga85 said:
I sowed my seeds back in February in a propagator and as soon as the seedlings where upright I moved them to the conservatory. The conservatory is south facing so gets around 6 hours of usable sun (weather permitting) in late February. By day it can reach the mid teens (Celsius) but drop down to 1-4C on a night...
Click to expand...
 
That's exactly my growing situation! Only the "convervatory" is my attic/storage floor lol.
 
This season I hardened off two ways. With one set, I put them out in our front yard (our only yard actually) under a tree with a white cover to help filter light and protect from our high spring winds and brought them in at night. My thinking was even though the yard gets an enormous amount of sun, the cover and eventually the shade of the tree would help protect them. Nope, many of of the plants ended up with burned leaves anyway.
 
With my second set, I figured out the back of the house gets morning sun for a couple of hours and full shade for the rest of the day, so every morning I would take them out there and then bring them back in at night. Did this for a couple of days, then I just left them out over night. None of the plants in this set had any problems.
 
In summary I think finding a nice shady spot for them offers the least troublesome way to harden them off.
 
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