when to plant out vegetable plants bought in a garden center

pjuegos · 03-05-2011 05:14PM #1

Hi all,

I went today to a garden centre in order to buy vegetable plants to plant outside in my garden:

tomatoes
oignons
courgettes
strawberries

and some herbs:

bay
thyme
chives

and probably some sunflowers

I felt that they were happily heated and still quite small.
I am a begineer on this; should I wait until the plants harden a little bit more before buying them and plant them outside?
Is it the case that those herbs are harder and could be planted outside already?

Thanks

Corsendonk · 04-05-2011 12:59AM

pjuegos wrote: »

Hi all,

I went today to a garden centre in order to buy vegetable plants to plant outside in my garden:
tomatoes

oignons

courgettes

strawberries

and some herbs:
bay

thyme

chives

and probably some sunflowers

I felt that they were happily heated and still quite small.
I am a begineer on this; should I wait until the plants harden a little bit more before buying them and plant them outside?
Is it the case that those herbs are harder and could be planted outside already?

Thanks

Generally your herbs should be tough enough to plant out. Garden centre plants are usually grown in speacialist nurseries so will have been harden off already before transit so go ahead with planting but put some slug pellets out when you plant the toms and courgettes as slugs and snails love them. The same applies to sunflowers. Make sure you have enough support for the tomatoe plants.

shawnee · 04-05-2011 05:23AM

Leave them out in their containers for a few days to harden them off. If you get frost put them in. After a week or so, they should be ready to plant out but again frosts are possible , but I have already planted some of these and they are doing well. If one gets a very cold night be prepared to cover them

Dizzyblonde · 04-05-2011 10:19AM

The only ones I'd worry about are the tomatoes - I never put mine out before the end of May.

pjuegos · 05-05-2011 06:09PM

thanks to you all for your great help and replies.

OK, so I understand now that the plan is to leave the plants I buy in the garden centre out in their containers for a few days to harden them off. I will monitor the frost in case the weather is too cold.

Now that the process is clear, I suppose the final question is: should I buy them now? Or do I wait for another month as Dizzyblonde suggests for the tomatoes? Does it make any difference at all?

Thanks!!!!!

when to plant out vegetable plants bought in a garden center

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