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.

When it's Cold

On days like today when it is suppose to get very, very cold, to what some call a hard freeze, it is helpful to protect your plants with something to keep them warmer. The ideal choice is a greenhouse. However, if you don't have a greenhouse, there are few things you can do to keep them warmer that are fairly inexpensive. Now keep in mind that this may not prevent your plants from freezing to death but it can help. Anyway here are just a few suggestions: Anything you have that will cover them is great, an old blanket, tarp, or piece of plastic; those all work for large areas of plants. If you have just a few plants that you would like to cover, like my broccoli for example a plant that can handle cold but not extreme cold, you can simply cut the bottom off a milk carton and place it over the plant for the night to try and keep some warmth in.

So to sum it all up keep plants warm is very similar to keeping people warm cover them with something or if all possible build them a little house. This tip is far more useful in the fall when you want to keep your tomatoes and other plants going a little while longer.