I started hardening off a batch of tomato plants today and it only took an hour for some to start wilting. But a cold night should be ok. I went to a gardening class where the instructor said she thought a little occasional stress on plants was a good idea. Works for me!

Thanks for your feedback!

If I decide to bring mine out, it'll only be for a few minutes. Geraniums are pretty hards, but even they were looking poorly after 2 hours.

I had all my seedlings all hardened off before that week of rainy, dark, cool weather, and I decided to bring them all in the house and back under the lights for the entire week. Now I have to start hardening them off again. I've been impatient and I see a few branches on some of my tomatoes that have sunburn. *sigh* Oh well, the new growth looks good. So I went back to leaving them in filtered light for a day and yesterday I put them in a couple of hours of direct sun and then filtered light the rest of the day. And we left all the seedlings out last night with a forecast of 49 degrees for the overnight.

I'm not worried about the tomatoes, but I hope it wasn't a mistake with the peppers, after nursing them for months. If we can just get through next week, I would think we should be in the clear.

Have you been making notes? I started three different batches of peppers based on their dates to maturity. I'm trying some exotic varieties that take a long time to mature so those got started soonest, early February, I think (notes not handy right now). The tomato and pepper seedlings I just got from a local grower are actually quite small, maybe only 6" tall and they usually do fine. I always get a good amount of red ripe peppers. Thanks to this year's Pepper Project, my indoor light stand isn't big enough. I'm trying to harden off this week but one plant wilted very badly. Wonder if its root system just wasn't ready. I probably should have started with filtered sun and not direct morning sun for an hour. Today I'll get out the garden cart so the plants can be wheeled in an out of the garage.

Thanx for all these sharing, this problem is very vivid that's why all these answeres are useful!

Defrost - I have kept notes about when I started seeds, I haven't kept up with recording all the ins and outs of hardening them off this season. I started my peppers back at the end of February and they germinated great and looked healthy and I discovered we had a mouse in the basement who took a particular liking to the pepper seedlings and ate them all. [g] So the batch I have now, is a second sowing. I've transplanted up to the next size on half of them but the other half seemed to have an insufficient root mass, so I didn't change them. They need it now, if I'm not putting them in the ground for a few weeks.

I took NHBabs suggestion to grow 'New Ace' pepper this year, along with 'Carmen' which is a repeat for me, which we enjoyed last year. I also tried some Fedco varieties - 'Jimmy Nardello' and 'Odessa' and 'Antoni Romanian' pepper from Johnny's Seeds. So far, the 'New Ace' have germinated the best and are the most vigorous.

I haven't used a light set up in years, because I switched to winter sowing, but I was buying all my tomato / pepper starts. I got it into my head to start all my own seeds under lights this year, but I ran out of room under the lights too. The tomatoes became too big to fit under the lights and I was just too lazy to take apart the shelf unit and adjust the shelves, so we've been carting the seedlings in and out of the house every day. Quite a pain. Luckily I don't have a large garden.

And I should have remembered how carried away I get with starting seeds. Vegetables and annuals - next year, I'm going to start later, so I don't have such an extended time to take care of all the seedlings. I may buy two more sets of lights for next year. I am really happy to have so many home grown seedlings. I have no way to roll my plants in and out of the garage, unfortunately. That would be perfect and I'm going to try to make that a project to accomplish.

I started Gazania for the first time this year, and they were so easy. They tolerate the light setup well and grow at a reasonable rate. Only had to transplant them once so far and they are already flowering.

I can't wait to get everything in the ground though!

My husband built a light stand for me out of scrap lumber so the fluorescent light fixtures hang by chains. To adjust the lights, I raise the fixtures up whatever number of links. A local farmer who grows for markets uses tables in their walkout basement but hangs lights the same way.

Needless to say, time to start hardening off more plants but the garden cart is already full. I don't dare plants until we see what the weather is going to be like after May 21st full moon. Gosh, when I woke up this morning I was still dreaming and thought I looked out the window to see snow (might hail this afternoon). I left the cart out last night and this morning it is 46. Cold but not bad. Local nursery still doesn't have all the annuals in yet because of our crazy weather.

A hand made light stand sounds wonderful, we're just using a metal shelf unit and instead of chains, I bought a few of these hangers, that make raising and lowering a breeze...

Grow Light Rachet Hanger

But I still didn't allow enough height between adjustable shelves. Next year, I'll definitely give myself more room to raise and lower the lights, but I still want to wait a good 2-3 weeks longer before starting seed.

I can't believe the month of May has had such variable weather. I usually have no problem planting out in May and sometimes even in April. Although my initial planting of Bok Choy, Kale, Lettuce, Cabbage are doing great. Just one covering of Agribon has been enough for the low overnight temps.

I'm still bringing the tomatoes and peppers in for the night, but starting tomorrow, overnights are supposed to be in the 50s, so this weekend, I probably will be planting tomatoes.

I started annuals, and they've been out during the day, but they are really growing so slowly, except for the Gazanias, that I'm tempted to start them over again. I just direct sowed Sunflowers, Cleome and Zinnias yesterday, so I'm crossing my fingers.

That is pretty bad, when you are having dreams about snow in May…lol!

I flunked annuals starting this year. The one annual I would like to have plenty of and is hard to find is lemon gem marigolds, dainty with a wonderful lemon fragrance to the foliage. Zero germination. Will buy a couple of six packs. I don't know if cleome self seeded last fall or not. I have a thick mass of forget-me-nots where I had some cleome that self seeded last year. Your are a whole zone of envy warmer than I am. Happy gardening and fingers crossing to all.

I've often heard people say they love those 'Lemon Gem' Marigolds, but I never knew they had lemony fragrance to the foliage. I think I'll look for some for the vegetable garden. Thanks.

I think we might be out of the woods. Surely with June only 10 days away, we should be getting closer to the 'no worries' time of year. lol Definitely 'fingers crossed' to all, too. :-)