30 out of 35 MIgardener seeds are 7" seedlings and looking great. Grow tent in my kitchen, wifes not happy about taking a corner of the kitchen but I'm sure she will be thanking me when it's time to harvest. 👍🌱

I know this video is 2 years old now… Your enthusiasm is inspiring and contagious. Never mind the practical gardening tips and tricks and advice and experience… your love for your craft is evident. I’m well aware you have more current and quantity of content, but I just watched this upload, and wanted to leave this message. Keep at it mate. This is good stuff.

I leave snacks daily for the squirrels. This year I have a volunteer tomato plant by our tree for them and I'm planting red clovers by it. I read squirrels love eating clover.

I have always dragged my plants home from the nursery and plopped them on a bench under a tree - just because that was a safe spot. They usually sit for a few days in dappled sunlight for a few days before being planted. It wasn't my intention to harden them off I was just doing it inadvertently

I also use a fan to get them used to breeze or softy run your hand over them.

This is a great hardening cheat. I hate hauling plants back and forth too.

People can also try "winter sowing" seeds using plastic milk jugs. Drill holes in bottom. Cut in half, fill with soil, plant seeds, water, tape top back on and remove cap. Set outside in feb/March. Milk jug acts like a mini green house and seeds grow whenever they want to already acclimated to the outside conditions. It works.

Now I need a green house with a roof that opens fully. Asking hubby today, hoping to stay married 😂

I can't believe how big your tomato plants are! Nice!

Ugh. Here in NW Ohio I spent a week hardening off our cool weather starts and I left them out overnight too early. We ended up getting some frost that night and I killed all my plants🙇‍♀️. We restarted and I’m hopeful with this cooler than usual spring we will get a harvest before it gets too hot. We have had the craziest spring weather the past few years.

I use an old screen door from a slider to give them protection. I just lean it against the building and place them under. They get wind conditioning and a little shade from direct sunlight. Works great! I picked it up cheap at the Habitat fro Humanity resale store

When I first put my plants under the lights, I have a oscillating tower fan with a timer. I set it for small increments to start with and gradually increase it to being on for a couple hours a day. This helps the plants get used to a breeze right from the get-go. I call it their strength trainer. Lol it's best to rotate the plants to so they don't get used to the breeze only being from one direction.

So that's why I never have any trouble whatsoever in Oregon. I have some pumpkins and cucumbers I plan to plant out on the first of June. There's not a single sunny day forecast before then.

YAY I live in the U.K., so cloudy and overcast days are no problem ! =9 =D

34° this morning and the wind the last few days was so awful, made it feel like it was gonna snow Blessings

thank you, Luke! This video was perfect timing..great info!

Fantastic video- even for us seasoned gardeners! Thanks!!!!!

Appreciate you freezing yourself for us, I really needed advice on this. Haven’t had much success doing this before and mucked it up. Thanks 🙏✌️🌱

Hey Luke, ty as usual. Cant wait for my seeds I ordered from ur site last week. So excited.

Yes!! Love overcast days! Thanks for the great info on this subject.

Just experienced this due to wacky NC weather, 87 one day 62 the next. Frost one day then 64 at night the next. I was on day 4 & the hot clear 87 day came & voila, leaf burn. We’ll have 4 days of overcast days so hopefully I’ll be less stressed & they’ll be less stressed.

I need to brave hardening off my plants but I am always afraid of killing them! Hopefully we can have a few more overcast days like today so I can get them out there and not worry so much! Thanks for sharing!!

GREAT tip! I'm a new gardener and this is going to be SO valuable to me as I do seedlings throughout the growing season

I have learned and continue to learn so much from you. Thank you for doing what you do!

Thank you! So helpful...this is the most challenging part of gardening for me!

So nice to have you confirm what I've been doing. I'm not crazy after all! Thanks Luke!

What a great video! Thank you for this! I recently bought too many plug plants on ebay and tomorrow will transplant into bigger pots but also wanted to begin the hardening off for an hour or so. Overcast days also make prime transplant days. We don't want to transplant in sunny warm days. You want cloudy rainy days to transplant into the ground but hardened off! I haven't grown baby plants in a decade so it's been awhile. Thanks so much for your help! NH has been getting nice 50ish spring days but still too cold at night here. Happy gardening everyone!

I continue to learn so much from your videos. Thanks, Luke!

This is exactly what I needed to hear, thanks! I'll have to make use of these 3 overcast days to help "harden" my plants faster than the 1 week gradual method.

Thank you luke i always learn so much you are my favorite gardening channel.

Very informative video! I've been midwest gardening for 8 years now and the information in this video is accurate IMO.

Ditto. And I used a Shade Net Tunnel, plus the overcast days and rain helped too.

I like when I plant out with a few cloudy days in forcast to ease the plants

thank you for your tip ..is very important to know....and thank you for your time i always learned something new with you.

Will definitely be keeping this in mind for next year - made the mistake of putting my seedlings out into my greenhouse on the first super sunny day of the season..... hopefully have learned my lesson lol!

Peak sun hours vary based on location, I'm in Florida and ours is 10 am to 4pm summer and others seasons is 11am to 3pm, we average 5.5 but during summer get over 6 peak hours. Just do an internet search for your area.

Yes!!! Thank you!!! Exactly the info I’ve been looking for.

This is the stage where I'm at now so this is perfect timing and a really good lesson for me to learn. Thank you so much!

You are an excellent teacher, Luke ! Thank you 😊 for this very much needed explanation!

Love you Luke. You have infinite patience lol. I've been hauling the plants in and out for some time.

Gosh, every time I watch a video from you I learn something new! You are a treasure trove of information and you have tips and tricks and little known facts that go above and beyond what any other channel I follow has to offer! Thank you Luke!

These plants are huge from indoor growing! Wow! We did inside winter growing in a breezeway and they are about 6 in tall. We were so surprised. We planted them in Feb. You have an outstanding green thumb! 👍

If you have the available space I would recommend to grow your seedlings in a south facing window. The direct sunlight makes them much more hardy and ready for being planted outdoors.

Thanks bro! Didn't think about the raising flats up, cool. I'm neglectful, but always have best results putting plants out during a few days of overcast too or on North side of a wall.

Great advise Luke. Love watching hour videos. Thanks for sharing

Luke, thanks for the tips, especially regarding taking advantage of overcast weather. We have had a lot of cloudy weather here this spring (Rhode Island zone 6) and I was able to harden off my tomatoes and peppers no problem in about 3 days, as you suggest. I ended up moving them inside more because of cold nights rather than for the hardening off process. Also good tips about finding a place where it gets shade in the afternoon and elevating the trays.

Look great tips about hardening off plants. You are right a lot of people forget about the critters and they eat their plants if they leave them on the ground unprotected. Good stuff.

I started hardening off yesterday and left them out all day. When I brought them in they seemed droopy but recovered. Today we have clouds and rain so I'm hoping they'll fare better in those conditions.

So glad this popped up in the recommendations! Great information. I'm going to move my saw horse tables to the front of the house to take advantage of the afternoon shade.

Oh i never new that about the leaf. Thst a great tip

Learned about the need to harden off plants the hard way. Burned a few plants in my first attempt at gardening this year

Luke you're very informative and you give your knowledge to us who is just starting off. I'm in my second year but still very much a beginner, I have a very small area, I live in London and face north that has full sun until about 2PM at the best to be able to grow fruiting plants but I have learnt so much from you. Once I've established my growing space to get the most of it I'll share pictures 🙂

Very neat simple yet detail video about hardening off properly without the stressors for both us and the plants. :)

Great explanation! Easy to understand for a beginner gardener :)

I sew spinach, lettuce, chard and garlic starting in spring. In fall when temperatures are low, I put the plants under clear plastic tubs. When daytime temps are too cold, I leave them covered day and night. About February on nicer days, I open the tubs during day. I pick all but garlic the rest of spring. It takes longer to grow them, but delicious. Sometimes lettuce needs reseeded every two weeks in summer.

I have shade covers, keep'em on for a week and that works well for me.

I always learn so much from you, Luke. Thank you!

Thanks, Luke this video is right on time for me.

Thank you for this video! You saved me from accidentally hurting my plants.

Great tips also when you do plant them outside you still have to watch them because you get into a heat spell and you better cover with shade. Planted an avocado tree two years old and this year we went through a heat spell it almost withered to its death But you’re right after it recovered it’s leaves were deep green and thick thanks for your vid

You’re a fantastic teacher!

Second-year gardener and live in the Ozarks. I'm on a hilltop in the country and can get a lot of wind. I learned that windburn is a thing too. This year moving everybody has been a real hassle due to the weather (heavy storms/wind, etc), but looking for a few mild, overcast days soon! Thanks for these great tips! You are terrific.

Learning so much from your channel. Thanks MIGardener. 🌻🌷🌻🌷

My favorite gardener!

Super informative Luke! I'm in Omaha and I'm lucky that my deck box (the thing that stores the patio furniture cushions) is tucked into a corner against white siding. It's the perfect "table" and allows me to start hardening off in early April. When I gardened in norther PA I'd harden off by putting my starts in a shady spot for a few weeks - takes longer but unless there is a real cold snap there is no moving them in and out.

I re- watched this video yesterday to get some tips on hardening off and guess what! I have a week's worth of cloudy days in my forecast. I'll be ready for May 15th planting date.

Glad you did this video, I thought hardening off had to do with temperature, not sunlight!

🎶❤️🎶🌱🎶❤️🎶 very thoroughly expressed. I appreciate your knowledge!

Thanks a lot! Much work and time to save there.

Thank you--this is very informative. I'll try this next week with my tomato seedlings.

Thank you for this advice, I'm doing it right now with my tomatoes and peppers, and so far no burnt leaves! I really traumatized them last year lol

nice info, ty. Hardening off was always my nemesis , until this year!

Great information Luke!! Thanks!

Excellent advice Luke. I've been doing this for years using my covered front porch that faces east with one end having a southern exposure. It is one of the best ways I've even used for hardening off plants. I can move them from the middle of the porch early to the southern end by day three with no ill effects on the plants. Wind here can be an issue with those tender leaves too so I do what I can to ensure they are not in too strong a wind. I've even left plants out overnight a time or two with no damage because of the microclimate that porch has. Cement floor that acts as a heat sink and the southern corner of it which is several degrees warmer than the northern edge. Pretty perfect. People thought for years I had a green house. I laugh and say, nope, I just have the perfect front porch.

Been doing this for 10 years and I have never had this fail.

Great advice for northern climates! 👍Here in Charlotte, we can cheat a bit though. It gets warm enough to start gardening in late Feb/early March, so they can actually go straight into that weaker sun without any issues. Sometimes I'll put them in mottled shade for a day or two, if it's later in the season or something I bought online. I made my own lights using offroad LED headlights, so it's about the same as spring sun. PS- Those white icicle radishes I bought from you are doing very well. 4" of green as of 4/15. Can't wait to taste!

Thank you Luke. I needed to know this.

thanks look you are doing us great help by your tips and advice i started to grow my tomatoes from seeds n i placed them under sun later i found white leave ending it was a bad sun scald i was angry i thought i lost them but surprisingly they started to grow green leaves again so now i set a timer n follow your tips ✌️

My front porch is the perfect place for hardening off. It gives me morning sun, like you said, then shady after 12:30/1:00. Fumbled into this knowledge last year during my novice stage. Lol.

I live in New Mexico where it's intense sun all day every day! We are at about 6000 feet elevation and the sun shines so intensely. This is my first season with a garden...cross your fingers for me.

Well this is interesting.... a few days ago when I brought my heat-tolerant tomatoes out to start hardening off (my spring tomatoes are already in the ground since days here in Texas are already getting up to mid 80s), I was thinking of how the leaves were so thin and soft compared to my older plants. Then today I felt the leaves and noticed they seemed a bit firmer and thicker. Now I know why! Once outside, they don't come back in because we have SO many pest insects here, but I have a large shade tree so I leave them where they get dappled sunlight all day from the tree leaves. (this is my first year growing my plants from seed and I'm still learning) I also fully agree with the nursery hardening off! I got an Aloe Vera plant, and it got sunscald! Talk about irony, an aloe plant getting sunburn.....

Great Great tips! This is really helpful

Watched this one again for the tips! Thanks!

This was very helpful. Thanks!

excellent stuff, Luke! thanks!

I wish my tomato plants looked like yours. I’m praying they bounce back 🤞🏾🙏🏾

Great tip!

I must have gotten extremely lucky with my batch of plants I put out in the garden this past Saturday. I planned to harden things off but well... My tomatoes grew extremely well inside in a grow tent up until they didn't. Tried babying them, but they were just getting worse so I decided to get them outside into the raised garden. They are doing so much better now. Transplanted about 20-30 plants that day along with them. Vegetables, herbs, flowers. Just about everything I had that was outgrowing my grow tent went outside. The only sign of stress I had came from my Kale. It wilted the next day in the sun but a good water at the base had them perking right back up the same day. Saturday was partly cloudy but every day since then has been clear and sunny. All the plants look so much happier outside now! Also, I use a fan in my grow tent. Helps keep mold away and I vary the speed on the fan randomly so the plants are already used to wind currents.

I have been trying this same technique this season with my tomatoes!

Great tips! Thank you!

Another great way to do it is to get them out in the sun as soon as they germinate. Once they start popping up through the dirt. I gave this a try with very good results. I do not need to harden them off at all. They have not gotten sun burnt at all. They are all ready to stay outside. I will say I did plant my plants in April. But you have to do it as soon as they pop through the dirt. Not as big as the plants you have though in the video. I also put them out on cloudy days as well.

Thank you for the video. I learned so much!

Best hardening-off video ever!!! And one of the best videos you've ever made, because of the crucial details for us novices. So many other videos and websites miss the mark on the details of the WHY, how long and location; they just make assumptions that it is "common knowledge." Thanks so much for the guidance!

Yes, I use the shade to my advantage in hardening my plants.

Thanks for the great tips

If you're looking for a video, maybe one on chamomile? For me, I finally had lavender germination (3 out of 30 seeds, LOL). I loved moving my plants onto my porch. It was protected but I got really lucky and lost maybe 2 out of over 500. Sounds like a lot but when you consider chives, marigolds, and other flowers or herbs, it's not.

I bought a big tomato plant but when I got it home I kept it in the house and put it out gradually. But... It developed these brown spots on the leaves. I removed those and now they are again on the lower leaves. It's still in the pot I bought it in. It's growing new leaves as suckers.

Really helpful videos, thanks so much 🌱🌱🌱

Thanks for freezing your buns off for us!!! I will be hardening off my plants in a few weeks! I hope!

Highly valuable information,thanks!