But this way we do not have to harden off all the seedlings in one go. If you follow our indoor seed starting schedule, you will notice that most plants have a different planting date.
Once the seedling is ready, and the weather conditions are right, it can be transferred to the outside, aka hardened off. A schedule of when to start seeds and when to plant them out can be very helpful, so you don’t start too early or too late. Start seeds indoors and let them become healthy strong seedlings first, without starting with hardening them off too early. We talk more about protection at the end. Plant them and cover them with a frost blanket for a few days, they will be hardened off in place. Note that young seedlings adapt quicker and mostly do not need hardening off. The hardening off in stages is quicker than the traditional way, simply because it is much gentler. What can be hard on plants, and often even kills a seedling is when the plant has to get used to everything at once, bright sunlight, wind, and extreme temperature.Įventually, a plant will have to face all that but it does not have to happen all at once. It is not hard for them, it’s the natural environment. Plants want to be outside, feel the sun and the wind. But since it is the common term, I use it here to describe the gentle process of bringing out plants. Personally I do not like the term hardening off, nor do I do it. If you grow them at a sunny window, they are to some degree already used to sunshine but still need to get used to the wind and weather. If you grow seedlings under grow light they will be more sensitive to natural light. The farther away from a natural environment our seed starting practice is, the more important is the process. To help them to adjust, they need to be hardened off. These indoor-grown plants are not used to natural sunlight, wind, and fluctuation in temperature. When we start seeds indoors for the outside garden they are growing in an artificial environment.
Hardening off plants before planting them out in the garden is part of the starting seeds indoors process. If you prefer listening to reading, you can continue on YouTube just follow the link.
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