Transplanting your freshly grown flower babies can feel like a delicate process. You've kept them cozy and safe indoors for weeks and sometimes even months. Exposing those seedlings to the elements of nature is certainly risky, but it's truly for their best. One way you can ease the transition from indoors to out is by conditioning your plants to the environment they'll soon call home. There is no concrete way to plan out your conditioning process because the only consistent thing about weather and temperature is that they're unpredictable year to year and zone to zone. I do, however, have a few helpful tips that will guide you deciding when and how to start conditioning your flower seedlings.
Tip 1: Keep an eye on the weather. No matter where you live, the length and intensity of weather is constantly changing. There's no way to be certain how far into Spring Winter will creep or if Spring will jump into winter early. Either way, gardeners anxiously keep an eye on the weather when planting season is looming. Whenever the weather is consistently mild and 45 degrees F or more, that's when you can start hardening off your plant babies.
Tip 2: Find a safe spot. During the first 2-3 days of putting your seedlings outside, make sure they are out of direct, harsh sun and wind. After that, you can begin exposing them to more sun and gusts of wind. You also want to make sure they're put up out of the way of pets, pests, and people. Last summer our dog ran through a tray of seedlings I set on the ground along our fence... whoops.
Tip 3: Start with an hour of outdoor time. Leaving your seedlings out for too long at first can shock them into wilting quickly. Every day you can increase their outdoor time by an hour or so until they're out for most of the day.
Tip 4: Water lightly while outdoors. Your soil is going to dry out quicker the longer they're sitting outside during the day. Water your seedlings gently to make sure the soil is slightly moist and so they get used to all the elements they'll soon be exposed to.
Tip 5: Leave out overnight after at least a week. Once you've been leaving your seedlings outside consistently for a week or more, you can let them stay out overnight. Again, make sure they're in a safe place away from creeping animals and up off the ground so slugs can't get to them. This should only be done when the temperature is staying 50 degrees F or more overnight.
Tip 6: Transplant! After you've been conditioning you baby flowers for around two weeks, it's time for them to say hello to a new, permanent home. Choose to transplant your seedlings on a cloudy day or in the cool of the evening. Once they're in their healthy, new soil and spaced apart just right, give them a generous watering and be sure to keep them hydrated every day after.
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