Hardening Off Plants

When you get indoor plants, from wherever you get them, it is important to harden them off before planting them outdoors. Hardening off is essentially getting them ready for outdoor conditions like temperature, wind, sunlight, among others. There a lot of ways to harden off indoor plants, I'm sure, but here are the methods I have used.

First - Put the potted plants outside in the morning and bring them in, in the evening to keep them from experiencing too extreme temperatures. It is good to place them is a spot that will not be bombarded with too much sunlight at one time. However I have put them in full sun and they have been fine as well.

Second - The other thing I did this year, which is shown in the picture above, is put them by a window in my garage for a couple days. I left them in there all night. They don't get as cold and don't have wind exposure.

I'm sure there are other ways to harden off a plant but these are the methods which I have used. Take a few days before planting to do the hardening, it is hard for me, but it is worth the day or so wait.