As planting day approaches – its meter to start preparing all of our indoor seedlings for the stiffness of the “ real Earth ” conditions they will face when they at last go into the garden in late May .
Up until now – our untested seedlings have had it well-fixed in the static confines of the peachy indoors – begin their spirit with a unfaltering diet of operate luminance , warmness and pee in our come starting standpoint .
But that is all about to change over the next few calendar week as we begin to toughen them up a bit by getting them used to the outdoor condition they will soon face up .
It is highly important when bulge out seed indoors to avoid taking young seedlings direct from the indoors and constitute them flat into the garden .
unseasoned and crank plants take clock time to adjust to sunlight , wind and temperature – and without that adjustment period – many can not cover the sudden groundless conditions swings mother nature will throw at them .
This intact procedure of receive them quick is know as “ harden off ” , and can be easily done on a back porch or deck .
begin this week , we will start to move all of our seedlings and seed tray out from under the indoor lights and onto our covered porch during the warmer day hours – bringing them back indoors only on extremely frigid night or windy days .
This allows them to facilitate into the temperature cut . To protect them from initial current of air damage – we mark up a few old glass windows on either side of the plants on the porch to block some of the jazz – eventually taking them away as well as the industrial plant strengthen .
As you move your plants out into the open air – this is also a great fourth dimension to graft any of your seedling that have outgrow little growing jail cell to a larger crapper .
For us , that intend taking most of our heirloom love apple plants and transplanting them into 2″ cups to give them more elbow room to originate even stronger root systems before going into the garden .
Some of our heirloom Lycopersicon esculentum plants are nearing 4 to 5″ in stature – and to aid support them we use a wooden skewer in each planting cup as their own personal stake . The stake really aid to keep them growing unbowed and warm until planting daytime .
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Happy Gardening – Jim and Mary !
