Last week, I turned off my Grow Lights and I moved my seedlings to south facing windowsills (see this blog entry) for a couple of days.
I then moved the seedlings outside during the day and moved them back inside at night. I did this routine for two more days.
It rained in Southern California on Friday and Saturday. I kept the seedlings indoors all day Friday, but I brought the seedlings outside on Saturday. The seedlings got a little wet from the rain. The rain stopped in the afternoon and the seedlings got a little sun. I took the plunge and I let them stay outside the entire night.
Starting today, I plan to keep the seedlings outside all the time until they are ready for transplanting. I have already transplanted one Charentais seedling (see this blog entry). I expect the rest of the seedlings will take several more weeks before they are ready to go into the ground.
I arranged the seedlings next to the 20" containers that I use to grow Oriental Lilies (see this blog entry). Each Lily container has a drip irrigation sprinkler (you can see the 1/4" drip lines going to the each container in the picture below). I put the seedlings right next to the containers so that they can catch the excess water coming from the drip irrigation sprinklers.
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Hi SoCal gardener!
ReplyDeleteWow!, A couple days away from reading your blog and I have had a lot to catch up with :-) ... I figure I am about 2-3 weeks behind you in seed starting. So, I guess I'll be hardening off the seedlings soon too.
Thanks to your advice I think I got a lot of tomatos and peppers started early enough to get an early yield (hopefully).
Thanks for your advice on the sweet potatos ... I'll wait until March. I have a lot on my hands right now anyway. I had to finish building my grow light structure.
I ended up planting another tray of peppers because none of mine had germinated (I'm using heat mats too!). Then, wouldn't you know it, a few started germinating. Well, better too many than too few.
My tomatos that I cloned, thanks to your advice, are also doing well. I have them in a mini hothouse outdoors. If the tomatos grow successfully, then they will be "leftovers" from last year. I've never heard of that happening. I mean, they grew last seasoned and survived the Winter. I cloned a few of the branches and they seem to be taking.
I see that your Charentais Melon plant is so large. Good for you! I also started mine early and they currently are beginning their 3rd set of leaves.
I've also been busy building some trellis structures. I bought a roll of rusted Concrete Reinforcement Wire Mesh (at a discount) at Lowes and I am painting it with Rustoleum. Since I have a small yard, my hope is to go vertical as much as I can.
Thanks for your blog. It is good source of inspiration on getting ready for Spring gardening.
Happy gardening,
Chris