Before you consider moving your plants outdoors there are still some precautions that we must take.
First of all, our little seedlings will still have some pretty weak stems on them, the second that any real wind comes their way they will be severely damaged. Secondly, our seedlings have been somewhat protected from their light source. Our plants, either grown on a windowsill or under artificial lighting such as florescent fixtures have never felt the full power of the sun. Even on a cool day the sun’s rays can burn. Ever been skiing in the spring? I bet you got a nice tan didn’t you?
It is very easy to get those stems a bit stalkier. About 3-4 weeks before you are ready to move your seedlings outside, start to introduce a little wind into their daily routine. The plant will slowly adapt, devoting more energy to thickening up it’s stem than it would towards producing more solar receptors (leaves).
I place a fan near by, on a low setting, for a few hours a day to slowly waft a bit of a breeze across my little guys. This is kind of like a work out and you will start to see the stems pumping up to handle the newly introduced element.
Now, picture a field of thousands of little re-sealable bags, each bag containing water. Except our bags have a very thin layer of plastic between our water and the sun. As we all know when water is heated it produces steam, but the plastic around or bags is pretty cheap stuff, it ruptures at the first sign of pressure. This leaves us with a field of broken bags with no water left within them. If you now pictured that field is the leaf of our little pepper plant. Even after just a few minutes of sun, all the little cells on the leaf of our plant could have burst and severely damaged our seedling, possibly harming it to the point of no return. All of our time and investment gone in just a few short minutes.
Ok, ok, I don’t want to scare you from ever putting your plants outdoors but you do have to remember that while it doesn’t take just a few minutes it can happened before you know it. If any of you are parents think of this, you wouldn’t leave your newborn son or daughter in direct sunlight for a few hours would you?
I would recommend putting your plants in the shade for a few hours each day to slow acclimatize them to the powers of the sun. Within about 2 weeks you will be able to slowly introduce them to more and more directly sunlight. This will help strengthen those cell walls and help the plant ensure the full power of the sun without worry.
–Jay
Written by Jay
Nick Lindauer founded Hot Sauce Blog in 2004, making it one of the internet's very first hot sauce review sites. After 20+ years of tasting, reviewing, and attending every major fiery foods event in the country, he's back behind the keyboard covering the hot sauce world he helped build.
5 responses to “Makin’ Habaneros – Part XI: Hardening”
Jay – I bought Miracle Gro Tomato Plant food – the guy at Agway said it would be fine, even after I expressed my worries about too much nitrogen.
Anyways, the mix is 18-18-21 and I’m worried it’s too high in nitrogen. What do you think?
Pepper Guy,
Well, typically tomatoes and peppers are very similar in the benefits they can receive from certain practices. In both tomoto and pepper plants too much nitrogen will allow lots of pepper growth,but you will see them drop rather than producing fruit.
Try this regimen instead;
Week One:
Add 1 tbsp of Fish Emulsion to the average 10″ high squirt bottle dilute with water. Spray the soil of each seedling thoroughly, you don’t want to water the plant this way, but you do want to add the nutrients
Week Two:
Add 1 tbsp of epsom salts to the same amount of fresh water. Spray the leaves of each plant.
This works amazing, alternating each week between the two, watering as usual in between.
–Jay
That regimen sounds good – I will go to the plant store today!
Unfortunately I’m seeing tiny blooms on my cayennes (I only set them out a week ago). This seems really early to me. Perhaps I should remove the blooms? May in New England is too early for flowers.
Pepper Guy, the plant will know when it is the right time to start producing fruit from those flowers, the flowers will probably drop, most will you will find.
If you do want to encourage stem and leaf growth then go ahead and nip the lower leaf nodes (carefully) this will allow more energy to go to the rest of the plant and keep growing up.
–Jay
Puckered Leaves? My habs are outside, look pretty healthy and are flowering, but the leaves have a puckered look to them. I see little bugs on them, an occasional aphid or two, but no infestation.
Any ideas?