Hi All,

Maryland's Stay at Home Order goes into effect tonight, so I brought all my seedlings from my office (which has the nice south facing window where they've been living since germination in the fall) to my home. What is the minimum temperature that seedlings can tolerate at nights? I'm debating whether to move them outside now (because the cat loves to nibble on them) vs keeping them indoors for a few more weeks until the nights are warmer.

Thanks,

Katie

Ps the seedings have a good root system and foliage are about 5 in high.

My personal experience is that the seedlings will tolerate pretty cool temps, at least a light frost. I put mine outside a couple of weeks ago in a protected spot. We went through a couple of nights 30 degrees, and they came through fine. Not saying they might not grow faster inside, but they do fine outside. I don't put them in full sun right away.

I'm still not all in ground yet, but planting 20 to 30 or so a day. All have been outside, on the porch, for about 6 days. Night time temps have gotten as low as 38 degrees with no ill effects. So glad to be getting this done before the bugs, humidity and heat hit!

Thanks for the input! We've got similar lows coming up in the next week, but nothing lower than what you guys had, so I think they'll stay outside.