HANDLE WITH CARE

(Page 2 of 4)

May/June 1986
By Susan Glaese 
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Water

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To help a plant harden off, you should also restrict its water supply. So give your seedlings' soil a chance to dry out some during those transition days. You might even let leaves droop just a little before you water. (And try to water only on sunny days-doing so reduces overchilling.)

Food

Alan Chadwick, founder of the biodynamic/French intensive method, used to speak of the "breakfast, lunch, and dinner" concept of nurturing young plants: Give them a good "breakfast" in their first seed tray, a nutritious "lunch" in their second flat, and when they're hungry and ready—a hearty "supper" in the fertile soil of their garden home. By the time you're ready to plant out, the breakfast and lunch you've provided for your plants indoors should be almost used up. Then the plants will respond all the more eagerly to the rich dinner you've prepared for them in the garden.

Wind

So far, to "hardy up" your plants, you've been decreasing warmth, water, and—in a wayfood. But wind and light are two factors you'll want to increase. Vegetables that get doses of mild wind make more xylem (tough) cells and shorter internodes (the stem distances between leaves). This means stockier, sturdier plants.

Light

Although you need to increase your plants' exposure to sunlight, you don't want to over—do it: Moving plants directly from partial light into full sun can "burn" leaves. By gradually increasing light exposure during the hardening—off process, you'll allow the plant time to form carotenoids-pig ments which act sort of like temporary sunglasses for the leaves until their chlorophyll levels have time to adjust.

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