By Katie Markheim, Nebraska Extension Master Gardener
Hardening Off – Prior to transplanting outdoors, plants should be hardened off to acclimate them to the outdoor conditions. One to two weeks ahead of planting outdoors begin moving your plants outside gradually into more wind exposure and more sunlight for longer periods of time as the hardening-off period goes on. Plants started indoors have not developed a thicker cuticle to sustain Nebraska winds, so they need to be put into the wind gradually to push them to grow stronger. They also are not used to the intensity of sunlight outdoors. Moving them abruptly from inside your home to outside conditions could cause the plant to snap off in high winds or develop sunscald on the leaves.Â