How to prepare Tomato and Vegetable Starts for Transplanting

 

Getting seedlings ready for transplanting. It’s important to take your time when it comes to moving your new seedlings to the great outdoors. This applies whether you grew your own vegetables and flowers from seed or bought them from our greenhouse. Moving your plants from the house or greenhouse directly into the garden without giving them time to adjust will set them back significantly and in some cases, they’ll fail to survive.  

This slow transition from indoors to the outside is called “hardening off”. Hardening off plants gradually exposes them to outdoor light, wind and temperatures. The process is easy, but it takes time. In fact, you should plan on a week or so to get your immature plants ready to transplant into the garden. On the first day, pick a sheltered, shady spot under a tree or on the patio and leave them there for 5 or 6 hours. 

 

Bring them in that night. The second day, place your plants where they will receive morning sun and afternoon shade. This will help your seedlings adjust to direct sunlight. Leave them in this spot for 6 to 7 hours. On the third day, increase the exposure time to direct sun and leave your transplants out after dark.

On the fourth day, if the temperatures are mild, leave your starts out all night. Follow the same routine for days five and six but be prepared to bring your plants back in if the nighttime temperatures fall. After this amount of time, your tomato, pepper, and vegetable seedlings should be ready to plant in the garden. 

 

Now that you are ready to plant, pick a cloudy day. This will help your seedlings make the transition from container to the garden even easier.  Even then, you will want to keep an eye on the forecast. Our average last day of frost is May 10, but this can vary greatly. Have a frost blanket or floating row cover ready to protect your plants. Do not use plastic to cover your plants. If plants are small enough, throw a box over them to keep the frost off.  

 

Another way to protect warm weather crops such as tomatoes and peppers is to set up water filled garden season extenders. These serve as insulators to protect plants from cold spring weather. Make sure you keep your plants watered during this hardening off process. Being outside means they will dry out faster, so keep an eye on the watering.