To small I believe. Me personnaly, I would wait atleast 2-4 more weeks. But I am not an expert. Mine are 4-5 times bigger and I still have under light in Louisiana.

Bill

Patience jif... way too young. It's much easier to control moisture, wind, and light right now--inside. If you want to let the "kids" out for some air for an hour or so, that would be fine. But, no full on sun -- filtered sun or shade for now. Btw, if this is about the normal time for your area to start warming up, in the future you may want to start your seeds about a month or so earlier. Personally, I like a good 10-12 week start for peppers.

Actually, I'm not sure if I'd want to fully harden them in those CLEAR containers. Maybe somebody else can help you on whether a full week in the sun on the root system is harmful or not.

Kevin

This post was edited by woohooman on Sun, Mar 10, 13 at 1:32

I know, they are kind of small. I think i will repot into 16 ounce styrofoam cups and use Al's 5-1-1. They are not growing real fast perhaps due to my medium (MG Seed Starting Mix) and/or my sub-par lighting (two 24" Daylight T-12s with only 2500 total lumen output.

Thanks for the advice, guys. I appreciate it.

If your lighting is subpar, I would move them out during the day in their containers, after you repot, that is. I'm not too sure about those clear containers either. Keep a close eye on them for water and wind, and they may reward you with stronger growth.

I do that with my seedlings when our weather starts warming but I know the ground is still too cold. I think they need less hardening off if you start lugging them in and out when they are young because they don't have a large amount of very tender foliage as they would if older, just what would be coming up out of the ground naturally if they had been started in the ground. And bringing them back in as the sun goes down keeps the soil warm overnight too. Of course, if you have hundreds of seedlings instead of what you have in the picture, this might not work so well... :)

I do the same sunnibel7.
jifjifjif: If you dont want to repot but still want to get them outside but are worried about the sun on the clear cups, you could just drop the clear cups inside of a dark colored one.
Bruce

Ok, thanks, all. I think the smartest thing to do is find patience. I will leave them under the lights for a while longer. I will grow them a bit longer in these cups before repotting also.

I think that you can harden them off now if you want. Peppers can and do sprout when direct sown and handle the outdoors just fine. Mother nature takes care of everything.

Since they have started already inside (like virtually all of us do), I would take it easy on them at first. As woohooman said, start them off with outdoor shade, then dappled light, and then direct / full sun. It's a gradual process as the plant adjusts to the much more intense environment. I wouldn't leave them out unprotected during a storm high winds or anything. But, the sooner you start to toughen them up, the better. The temps sound great and that is what is most important.

So, I say go for it, just work your way up to their final environment gradually.

I wouldn't move them out permanently. But you could start exposing them to outdoors gradually. They are still fairly small.

However I did set everything I had out today for 3 or 4 hours or a little more. Was pretty rough on them, but they all are looking pretty good tonight after the day today. (Had fairly strong wind gusts today, but it was sunny at times, light cloud cover occasionally, and a comfortable 65-68 degrees.)

Just do it gradually I'd say.

Keep in mind when hardening off plants that wind is as big an issue as sun light. They are not used to wind and even a 10-15 mph wind on a non-hardened plant can bend it over at the base if it isn't used to it.
Bruce

Ok, i thank you all for the input. I am getting somewhat conflicting info, but i know sunlight is far better than artificial, so i think i may begin hardening them off tomorrow. I will not repot yet, but i will give them some indirect sun.The wind is a non-issue simply because of how my screen room faces and the fact that it its concrete walls on three sides.

Ok, i thank you all for the input. I am getting somewhat conflicting info, but i know sunlight is far better than artificial, so i think i may begin hardening them off tomorrow. I will not repot yet, but i will give them some indirect sun.The wind is a non-issue simply because of how my screen room faces and the fact that it its concrete walls on three sides.

Everyone seems to be in agreement, as far as I can tell.

There are two primary pieces of advice being given, but the advice is not mutually exclusive.

Yes, they can use some protected, outdoor shade (which is many times brighter than your brightest indoor windowsill) - And, yes, they are also very small to be "hardened" off - much smaller than most of us would consider hardening off.

So the recommendation would be to treat them to some outdoor shade and air right now, but still go through the full hardening off process when we get closer to the outdoor release date.

Josh

Hi Rich.

If you're suggesting your warm weather has started and a low of 60 is the worst you're gonna see going forward, I agree with tsheets. Kick those puppies outside. After all, that's where they're supposed to be!

Sorry, I'm not familiar with central FL weather. I'm still looking at SNOW on the ground!

Rick

I appreciate all the input, guys. That's what i was asking for.

I have kind of a gut feeling that because of my medium (kind of compacted down MG seed starting mix) may new prohibiting growth a bit. I went out today and bought perlite, pine bark and organic soil conditioner with lime added. I think i will make up some of an AL's 5-1-1 variation using one part soil conditioner in place of the sphagnum peat and put them into 16oz styrofoam cups and also give them some daytime shade on my porch.

This seems pretty logical to me since our weather is so good consistently now.

.........and done.

I really think that they will do much better in this medium.
When i transplanted, the old soil looked like just that........old dry heavily compacted soil. This new medium is much healthier looking and less compact, etc.

From what I'm seeing, ambient temperature is critical to speed of growth. When I started leaving a gas burner on to heat up the kitchen room over 70ðF for most of the day (the weather here has helped too), the plants really started to show some growth.

Is your grow room below 70 most of the day?

Also, they are under lights and get about an hour of sun daily though the window with a fan on lightly. Saturday I took the whole lot out in the direct sun and let them bask for four hours or so. Very happy, sun-tanned plants now. (It wasn't an unqualified sucess - see the Dumba$$ of the Year thread for that part of the story.) But I didn't have anything in pots as small as some yours...

Yeah, the grow room is a small storage room on my screened porch, so its 70+ all day.

I know. I see everyone elses pictures and they all look so much taller, leafier and overall stockier than mine. I know that many growers in here have far better light setups, but that can't be the only reason why mine are so small. That's why i believe it was my old, beat up medium. This hybrid 5-1-1 should hopefully do the trick.

Just two days in this 5-1-1 and already better off.

Long live Al.