Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: the Kergan on April 15, 2012, 15:03
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In my greenhouse I have started the following from seed
Broad beans runner beans dwarf French beans peas brocoli sprouts parsnips lettuce & celery.
The greenhouse is unheated so cools down a lot at night but some seeds are coming through from what I seeded 8 days ago.
So will I have to harden these plants off before I transplant them outside to the raised beds. If so how do you properly harden off your plants.
Thanks my lovers.
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Hardening off is the process of putting seedlings outside during the day for a while, and bringing them back under cover at night - then leaving them outdoors overnight for a few more days, before planting them out.
As they've been in an unheated greenhouse you won't need to spend a long time at each stage - if they've been in heated conservatories then the acclimatisation process needs to be spread out over longer.
Broad beans, peas, broccoli, sprouts, parsnips, lettuce and (I think) celery can be hardened off over the next week or so (if it's going to be frosty tonight I might start a couple of days later!).
It's far too early to be putting runner and french beans outside at night - you need to wait until the last frost has passed to risk this. If they get too cold then they will sulk big time.
In Yorkshire I wait until the start of June for beans to go out.
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Thanks for that. I won't be putting anything out for another month or 5 weeks as they have only just broken the surface, just getting the help I need in advance :D
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All except the specified beans can go out whenever you want as they are hardy :)