I wrote the post at the bottom last year. I always thought that 1-2 weeks was excessive for hardening off seedlings. This year, I did 2 hrs/day for a few days, then 3 hours, then 5 hours, and ZAP! Now I'm rethinking my hardening off strategy. I think I will be more conservative in the future.
These babies will survive, but they gave me a scare. I have all my container tomatoes in partial shade, either under a tree or behind some bushes. My giants are going in the ground this weekend, so I can't move them in and out of shade. Here's hoping for some cloudy weather!
It's that time of the year where the seedlings meet the soil. A few brave souls have already put their plants out! As for me, I'm going to be planting this weekend.
Seedlings started indoors live a very sheltered life for the first few weeks. There's no wind to contend with, minimal UVs, and temperatures are a consistent 70 degrees. In order to adjust to outdoor growing conditions, tender seedlings need to gradually adapt over a period of days. Skip this all-important step and it's welcome to Scorchville, population your plants.
Feeling the burn
Many "experts" say you need to harden off tomatoes over 1-2 weeks, gradually building the time each day until they can stay out all day. One guy wrote that he does 2-4-6-plant (measured in hours per day). It would be a catchier phrase if "plant" rhymed with "8". I've been doing something similar to that for the past few years, and it seems to get the job done. I usually try to plant the plants in the afternoon also, so they have the cool of the evening to recover from transplanting shock.
