9/28/2023 0 Comments Hardening off seedlingsDay one of the hardening-off period is a good time to start preparing the soil. And because heavy, waterlogged soil covered in weeds or cover crops is slow to warm up in spring, it’s helpful to prepare tomato beds a week or more before transplanting. The warmer the soil is, the faster they will grow. Keep an eye on the weather and bring them in if there is any danger of frost. After five or six days of going back and forth, leave the seedlings out overnight for the remaining four or five days.Continue taking them back and forth each day, leaving them out a little longer each time and slowly increasing their sun exposure by inching them out of the shade.On day two, leave them outdoors for a little longer.Take your tomato seedlings outside and leave them in this protected place for a few hours on day one.One option is to string a shade cloth overhead and on the windward side. Find a sheltered place outside where the seedlings can sit in filtered sunlight, out of the wind.Acclimating tomato seedlings to outdoor conditions is a bit like helping your child adjust to kindergarten – it takes plenty of patience and hand-holding. “Hardening off” tomato seedlings means gradually introducing them to the outdoors. To help them along, there are two things you need to do before you transplant your seedlings: Prepare the soil and something gardeners call hardening off. Between desiccating winds, the heat of the sun, and armies of bugs and diseases that may be waiting in ambush, there is much that can go wrong for a young tomato plant. What they don’t realize is that conditions are harsh in the outside world. ![]() You’ve sowed your tomato seeds, and now the seedlings stand like little green soldiers in your window, patiently waiting to be liberated from their pots and plunked into a warm bed of earth.
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