Before transplanting plant sprouts to your garden you will need to harden them if they were in your house or a very sheltered area to start with.

You can do this a number of ways.

• Set them outside for a few hours increasing every day until they can stay outdoors all day and over night.
• Set up a fan in your house.
• Touch your plants and cause some stress for them.

Hardening plants by placing them outside a few hours per day.

When you first start placing your plants outside to harden them make sure that it is a calm day, with temperatures between 50-60 degrees. Any less or more than this will cause the plant more stress and time outside will need to start at a shorter interval and increase more gradually.

Make sure that the first days are spent in an area without direct sunlight. Again, if you have to set your new sprouts in direct sunlight start with a shorter time and increase more gradually.

If you encounter temperatures that suddenly plummet , and are too cold to continue your schedule place a small fan on your plants for the amount of time they would have been outside.

Here is an example of a hardening schedule:

• Day 1 – Water plants, and wait about 1-2 hours for them to soak it up. Well watered plants handle stress better. Place plants outside for 1 hour.
• Day 2 – Repeat the watering and place outside for 2 hours.
• Day 3 – ” ” place outside for 4 hours.
• Day 4 – ” ” place outside for 5-6 hours depending on how they handled the increase yesterday.
• Day 5 – ” ” place outside for 6 hours.
• Day 6 – ” ” place outside for 6-8 hours.
• Day 7 – ” ” place outside for 8 hours.
• Day 8 – ” ” place outside for 8 hours.
• Day 9-14 – Place outside in partial direct sunlight during some of their time, increasing to all the daytime hours. Start watching the night time lows and if they are in the 50’s plan to leave the plants outside some daytime and some nighttime hours. Now we start thinking of this more as giving the plants an indoor break, but they are living outside most of the time now. If you have inclement weather make sure to bring them in.
• Day 14 – Plants can be transplanted at this time or even sooner if they are doing well and liking it outside. I have had plants harden and be happy within one week, and I have had plants which need longer to harden.
• If you notice that your plants are not super happy after they have been transplanted do not worry. You can give them a break under a canopy of a bed sheet if they need a break or if you have an exceptionally windy day.

Setting Up A Fan

• Set up a small preferably oscillating fan near your plants. Turn it on the lowest setting and allow it to blow the plants 1 hour.
• Increase by 1-2 hours per day depending on how they look. Up until they can handle it almost around the clock. You can also turn it up to medium for 1 hour once they can handle the lowest setting to further harden them.
• Refer to the tips and steps at the end of the previous section pertaining to finally transplanting them outdoors. They should be given an opportunity to be outside at least for most of the day and night and have a few breaks indoors before fully transplanting because they also need to be able to handle direct sunlight and temperature changes.

Touching the plants

• Several times through out the day fun your cleaned hands gently over your plants and get them used to some stress. If you do this from the time they are sprouts they will harden faster using the above methods when the time comes.

The younger you can get them out in the wind and sun the hardier they will be.

Also, if your tomatoes start looking very unhealthy remember that you can bury a tomato plant because tomatoes can grow roots from anywhere on the stem. So if they drop some bottom leaves, or are getting tall and unruly just bury that part when you transplant to give them a shorter start making them root deeper and less vulnerable to wind when they are first transplanted.

Happy Gardening!