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The Garden Decoder: What Is the ‘Hardening Off’ Process?
You started from seed and raised all those little seedlings. You gave them everything they could ever ask for, and now you have trays of future Cherokee Purple tomatoes, Trinidad Moruga scorpion peppers, and Fairy Tale eggplants.
You’re excited to take the seedlings you have grown lovingly from seed, and plant them in your garden.
You need to harden them off first.
What is ‘hardening off’?
Photograph via Floret Flower Farm, from Ask the Expert: 7 Tips to Grow Cut Flowers in a Tiny Garden, from Floret Farm.
Sweet pea seedlings at Floret Flower Farm.
Hardening off is prepping the seedlings for life outdoors. It is the transition stage to allow your seedlings to acclimate to the new outdoor life.
Why do seedlings need to be hardened off?
Basil seedlings growing in CowPots.
Photograph courtesy of CowPots, from Letter of Recommendation: CowPots, My Seed-Starting Secret Weapon.
Plants grown in a controlled environment aren’t used to the uncontrolled outdoors. There is no wind to tug on their little roots or stems.
Photograph by Erin Boyle, from 5 Favorites: Cold Frames to Warm Up the Garden.
How do you do it?
Historically, cold frames offered a place to harden off seedlings on their journey from the cozy confines of the greenhouse to outdoor planting beds.