A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening Hardening off in door seedlings.......... some questions

I have a bunch of seedlings from 3" to 18" that I'm starting to harden off. My schedule allows me to place them outside from 12:00pm to 8:00pm which goes from warm and then gets cool around 8pm. Will this be enough time outside for a week to then leave them out 24 hours or should they be out 12 (or more) hours daily before leaving out 24 hours and planting in the garden?

It sounds like you're doing it right ,,
Generally to hard off,,
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Move the plants to a shady spot for increasing amounts of time, several days in a row.

Bring them in or cover them if the temperature looks like it will dip.

Gradually increase the amount of time they spend outside and the amount of sunlight they receive until you see that they are growing strong and appear ready to go out on their own.

Water your seedlings well before and after tranplanting and try not to transplant during the hottest, sunniest part of the day.

They really get limp towards the evening and are starting to look really light green....not as dark as when they stay in the house....why is this?

Don't let them outside for too long at the start. Start out with about an hour the first day, increase to 2 hours the second day, 3 hours the third and so on. After a week, they should be properly hardened.

If you have the time the gradual method works well. I'm unable to do this due to work demands. So I use other methods. I place them on the east side of the garage where they get only morning sun for a few days. I also have a cold frame I use and put shade cloth over it and then remove it for a short time when I'm around. I leave them covered when the sun is directly overhead. Also I move tomato plants directly from indoors to the garden. I plant in post holes with the plant tops just even with ground level and put a 5 gal plastic bucket over them. This limits the sun enough and if the temps are cool I put plastic over the top and cut a ventilation slit in the top. I have used these methods for years and they work well for me. I hardly ever sun burn the tops. The main thing here is too keep them protected from the wind and let them get used to it gradually which the buckets allow also. Just a few other suggestions for those that are unable to harden off and move plants by the most often suggested way. I also pot up and harden off several hundred plants and not just a few. So what is practical for many isn't for myself and larger growers. Jay