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Your plants have been carefully grown in my greenhouses and selected for form and vigor. Before you transplant them to the garden they should be conditioned to ready them for outdoor survival by a process horticulturists call 'hardening off'.
When you bring your plants home and outdoor temperatures are above 40°F, keep them outside in a partly sunny spot (direct sun can sometimes burn tender plant tissue) protected from wind. Bring the plants inside if temperatures are expected to drop below 40°F. After four to seven days of this regimen, the plants should be hardened enough to transplant outside. Less water should be given the plants during this treatment, but care should be taken to keep the plants from wilting. A weak solution of liquid fertilizer, applied to the plant at the time of transplanting, will also help get it off to a good start.
Early transplanting calls for vigilance by the gardener and attention to weather forecast. Danger of a frost or freeze means measures must be taken to protect the young transplants. Poly spun row covers (like Reemay) will provide up to 4°F of protection. Wall O' Water is an excellent choice for protecting tender plants as well as warming the soil prior to planting. Properly installed, the Wall O' Water can give up to 10°F of protection. Effective, home-made devices can be constructed from old plastic milk containers or styrofoam cups with the bottoms removed. An old sheet or blanket will also do in a pinch.
Although no special equipment is necessary to harden off your plants, a cold frame will be helpful. A cold frame is nothing more than a protective structure with a glass or plastic top that will open and shut. Sides may be of wood, masonry, straw, bundled newspapers, or poly sheeting stapled to a wooden frame. The top is usually slanted (usually towards the south) so that it will catch the sun and drain rain water away from the structure. The cold frame protects young seedlings and transplants from the ravages of spring wind and unsettled cold weather. Seedlings are hardened off for a week or two in such a structure to stiffen their stems and adjust them to temperature fluctuations that did not exist indoors on your window sill, under your grow lights, or inside the greenhouse, where conditions are ideal and encourage soft growth.