lizmcawesomesauce asked: How do you harden plants?

Hardening your plants is the process of getting your plants that were started indoors use to being outside (direct sunlight, wind, etc.).   Over the span of a week or so, you want to leave your plants outside for longer and longer periods of time each day.  It’s pretty easy to gauge if you’ve left them out too long because the leaves will turn white and crispy.  I’ve never had any casualties by not hardening them properly, but it definitely slows down the growing process.

Here’s the hardening schedule that I try to make myself follow (I’ve never actually stuck to the plan and regretted it each time).

Day 1: Shaded area for 1-2 hours

Day 2: Direct sunlight for 1-2 hours

Day 3: Increase the time to 2-4 hours

Day 4: 2-4 hours

Day 5: 4-6 hours

Day 6: 6-8 hours

Day 7: They should be ready to stay outside permanently