So your plants have been growing and demanding more water and fertilizer and now it's getting close to planting them outdoors. Whether your plants are to be transplanted into containers or into the garden, it is best to “harden them off”. This means getting them used to the outdoors gradually. During the warm sunny spring days start setting your plants outside for a few hours, gradually increasing length of time and strength of sunlight. Actually a warm mostly cloudy day is best for the first outings. Young plants can get sunburned just like us. Wind will also burn young foliage, so protect your investment with a windbreak or leave them indoors on blustery days. When it is time to plant, continue some protection until plants are established. Some ways to protect young plants in the garden and those directly sown in the garden are to use cloches. Cloches are glass bell shaped covers but are expensive, a gallon milk jug with the top and bottom cut off works too. Hotcaps or the milk jugs work nicely for the cukes, squash, pumpkins and melons. Wrap tomato cages in a translucent material such as packing foam wrap or pieces of old white sheets. Protection can be removed in about a week to ten days.
Many people grow tomatoes. There are 2 methods of planting. If you have large sturdy plants, ones that have been uppotted several times as discussed earlier, plant them straight up and cover several inches of the stem. If you have smaller plants (the 1 Cup size), plant them on a slant in a trench. Again, trim the lower leaves and cover the entire stem. Mark where the rootball is so you don't dig it up when weeding!! Add a collar to wardoff cutworms. A collar is nothing more than a strip of newspaper about 1 ½” wide wrapped around the stem loosely above and below the soil line. As the plant grows the paper will degrade and stems are too tough for the cutworms.
At the start we discussed temperature. Temperature continues to be very important. Waiting until the soil is warm is the best thing for your plants. Soil is warm when our night time temperatures are regularly at 55*F or more. In our area of northcentral Wisconsin, this is late May to early June. They will establish much more quickly and be healthier for it. Enjoy and we hope to see you this spring!