Container Gardening, too soon?

[penguinsrock09]

This is my first post on this forum and I have been reading lots of the older posts over the past few weeks gaining a tonne of great ideas. I decided to sign up and take part in future discussions.

I have a quick discussion question that I'd like to pose. I'm still relatively new at gardening, this being my second year, and I decided at the end of last year to save seeds from my various plants. I got anxious last month and decided to "test" some out and now I have various pepper plants that are approaching 5 inches tall with about ten to twelve true leaves. They have been growing under grow lights but they're outgrowing their small containers. Now since I don't have room to plant them all in larger containers and keep them under the grow lights I thought that maybe it was time to start hardening them off.

The temperatures in Toronto have been super warm and sunny for this time of year. Today hit 20 degrees and the two week outlook is looking to have an average temperature of 15 degrees. If I harden some of these peppers off and put them in a large container and start setting them out in the warm sun on my patio would that allow them to grow during these few warm weeks?

I don't expect these temperatures to last so I can pull them back inside if the weather dips down after that but will that ultimately stunt their growth as they'll get less sunlight and warmth?

What are your thoughts? I've attached a picture of the seedlings as well

[OGrubber]

Welcome!
I say go for it.
As long as you are willing to shuffle those containers in and out if/when we get seasonal lows you should be ok. And, even if the temps do drop to normals and you have to bring the containers in for a period of time, I don't think it will be for long enough to set back the peppers by much.

[Eeyore]

Great looking peppers Penguin! Remember that you can pinch off the bottom leaves and bury them up to their "leaf pits" to produce stronger plants.

[penguinsrock09]

Thank you both for the replies!

I split them up into individual containers and planted took the advice to pinch of the bottom leaves (Thanks I did not know that!) I'll harden them off and I don't have any issue with bringing them back inside at night and if it gets cold in the future.

Thanks to this warm weather I'll be able to use the grow lights to work on other seedlings that I've been starting. Space under the light can be at a premium!

[Puff10]

Hi,

I've done the same mistake in being too anxious to start growing stuff in the spring. A few years ago, I purchased some heavy plastic cloche which I've been using on my containers. On top of each cloche there is a little vent which you can open or close. This would allow you to put your containers out on your deck even if the weather cools off.Good luck!

[Dumbo]

the two week outlook is looking to have an average temperature of 15 degrees

I only know what I read. Having said that, I read peppers should only be hardened off or placed outside when the temp in a min of 18.

15C.. 18C... Is it a big deal? For some veggies it apparently is since the temp will cause different biological process within different plants (such as bolting with a temp diff of a few degree's below 15).

Does Canadian gardening have a table of different plants and what min temp they should go out at? If not, that would be a neat addition/article.

This is a Washington State U article which gives some min temps.:
http://gardening.wsu.edu/library/vege003/vege003.htm

What I don't know is if some plants actually benefit from colder weather, like Broccoli or Brussels sprouts. All I know is that you can plant them at around ~10C. Not sure if they have some biological temperature thing to them like celery or cabbage does.

[Eeyore]

Peppers are a hot weather crop and may be affected by the cooler temps however, I think with daytime temps of 15 you can set the plants out for a couple of hours in a shaded or filtered sun area. A slight breeze will also help them to stiffen up.

Broccoli and Brussels sprouts are cool weather crops which can be direct planted early and will do much better.

I'm moving this posting to Veggie and Fruit. Inge is one of our most knowledgeable veggie gardeners and hopefully she'll weigh in on this topic.

[Eeyore]

I see she did comment earlier so I'm sure she'll be back to comment on the other postings.

[penguinsrock09]

A brief update since there was some interest. I started them out slowly and now during the afternoon they sit outside in the shade partially covered from the wind. So they are not getting hit with direct sun or full wind. The temperature today was in the mid 20's. It is slated to drop down again to the mid teens over the course of next week. So far they're doing well and haven't had any problems but the weather has been in the high teens early twenties for over a week now.

This was a batch that I wanted to test and wasn't actually on planning to plant when the time is right so they're perfect to experiment with as I've got tiny seedlings under grow lights to replace them if need be. I'll report back and add pictures as we go!

[CdnChelsea]

Speaking of cool weather crops, so far I have planted spinach, swiss chard and snowpeas in half barrels that are on our deck. If (God Forbid) the weather turns quite cold, I'm sure those veggies will be fine.

Penguins do rock:

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