I did it different ways depending on the year and the circumstances, but basically I would put the plants out for 1 hour of sun the first day on about Wed. afternoon if I could (since I worked in logistics for a defense contractor, I worked 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. at that time and got home before 4 p.m.). Then, on Thursday, I put it out for two hours, and about the same on Friday, because I couldn't get home early enough to set it out to get three hours on Friday afternoon unless I was hardening it off relatively late in the season when the sun was setting later. On Saturday, I'd stretch it to four hours, generally in the morning when sun was less intense. On Sunday, I'd aim for 4, 5 or 6 hours, watching carefully to see if the plants were getting wilted or droopy, which might indicate the plants were on the verge of getting too much sun. Sometimes I'd move the plants into dappled shade after 4 hours. When Monday rolled around, I could either put the plants on the deck in the morning in darkness before I left for work and come home at noon and put them up, at which time they'd had sunshine from sunup until I got home around 11:30 a.m, or I could rush home from work on my lunch hour and put the plants on the porch or deck around 11:30 a.m. and let them sit out there until late afternoon or early evening. Rushing home during my lunch hour was a nerve-wracking thing as I barely had time kto drive home, put out the plants (or put them up, depending on what method I was using that day), and rush back to work, and I never had time on a day like that to eat lunch. Sometimes I felt like I had fully hardened plants after a week, sometimes it took two weeks.

Some years, I had put the plants out on the front porch (back yard was too shady in the late afternoons) for an hour or two every day in the week leading up to the hardening off week, just in an effort to get them toughened up from a little sun/wind exposure. When I did that, if I did it for a full week, I could harden off over fewer days by starting with 1.5 hours the first day, normally a Thursday, then 3.0 hours on Friday, 4.5 on Saturday, 6.0 on Sunday and leave a plant out for the whole time I was at work on Monday. Some years I got away with this, and some years the plants burned. Every year was different and partly that was due as much to wind exposure as to sunlight. A location shelted from the wind was ideal, but you have no control over what the wind does after you leave home, and some years the wind was low and coming from one direction when I left, and from a different direction and stronger a few hours later.

Some years, my schedule went hay-wired and I'd have to start over again after it derailed. Some years, during the time I wanted to harden off, it was too cloudy too often and it would take me 2 or 3 weeks of a one step forward, one steps back kind of process. Keep in mind how very long ago this was because it was prior to 1993, which is when I quit my job and became a stay-at-home mom. I don't know if I'd do it the same way nowadays because I think I took a lot more risks with young plants back then simply because I didn't have much choice. I'm more cautious nowadays with hardening off plants, but then again, it seems like I have tons more wind here in OK than I had there, and maybe that is largely the difference between living in an old, well-established neighborhood with lots let wind movement (so many big trees, privacy fences, houses, etc. to block the wind) back then versus being much more exposed here in rural OK in a more wide-open prairie setting. Hardening off always involves exposing the plant gradually to not just progressively more sunlight daily but also more wind, and it is a lot harder to do it when the weather is really windy because in the first couple of days, strong wind seems much more hard on the plants than actual sunlight is.

Oh, and remember you can use strategic placement. When I was leaving a plant out for a half-day or a full-day while I was at work, I could strategically place it in a location where shade would reach it at some point, including merely setting the plants beside a large container on the porch or deck, knowing the container and its contents would shade the tomato plants for part of the day. Even when I was only hardening off for a half-day, I could leave the plants out all day if I put them on the east side of the house where they got morning sun only, especially if it wasn't a very windy day.

I hope this helps. Hardening off tomato plants is hard when you work full-time, and there is no set formula that works every year because of the way the weather, especially the wind, varies so much. I think it would be harder for someone to harden off in the same way that I did if they don't get home from work until 4, 5 or 6 p.m. merely because there's less sunshine to work with if you're getting home later. If I came straight home from work after getting off at 3 p.m. and if I hit all the traffic lights and had a smooth sailing sort of trip home, I could be home by 3:30 or 3:35 p.m., though on other days if I hit every single light, I might not get home until almost 4 p.m.

I also didn't really have a light shelf back then, so my plants largely were raised in the house's sunniest window and always had had some sunlight exposure via sitting in that window their entire lives. That might have made them a little bit more hardened off to begin with. And, as I type this, it feels like it was 100 years ago. Thinking about the late 1980s and early 1990s? Wow. I don't think I really remember much from those years (and some of the hairstyles and clothing from those days are best left in the past, too).

Dawn

Year before last someone on facebook posted a method which used plastic, like the rolls from the big box stores. Basically he tented the seedlings. The plastic offering protection from sun and wind, but open enough for ventilation. it meant the plants could be left out all day. I searched but couldn't find the post. I used a modified version that year that worked well for me. I had beds with hoops over them that had said plastic wrapped around it but not over it. It acted as a wind break and shade except when sun was directly over head. That is where I hardened off my seedlings that year. The search I did turned up people hardening off under shade cloth, too.

Ha, Dawn, don't ya miss shoulder pads?

I use row cover and have not lost a plant yet. I make a small low tunnel out of pvc pipe, put a double layer of row cover on it and the plants inside. after two days I uncover one layer of row cover. Three days later, I prop up the cover bit and slowly remove the cover from there a little at a time. Easy peasy..works like a charm.

Amy, Shoulder pads? A mistake in the first place and I hope they never come back. If they do (grin), I will not be wearing them!

Dawn