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Too Early to Plant Out In Cambridgeshire

Hi, I have tomatoes, runner beans and sweetcorn ready to go outside that I have raised in an unheated greenhouse, can I put them outside now and if so so the best way to acclimatise them beforehand.

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  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 86,100
    Put them outside during the day (as long as it's not torrential rain etc) and back indoors at night  ... I start mine off in a shady place if the sun is strong, so the leaves don't scorch.  After a week to ten days they should be fine to plant out providing the weather forecast isn't promising very low temperatures.

    I've already planted my runner beans out, but they're a French x Runner hybrid which are slightly more tolerant of lower temperatures than the ordinary runners are. 

    Which bit of Cambridgeshire?  We were at the Out-laws on the S. Lincs-Cambs border about ten days ago and everything was much further forward in the gardens than here in mid Norfolk. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 9,598
    Put them outside in the daytime and bring them back into the greenhouse at nights for several days. It's a bit of a faff but it works. I don't have a greenhouse so my toms are in and out of the house every night at the moment (I don't grow beans or sweetcorn). I'm planning to leave them out overnight (maybe fleeced if it feels at all chilly) next week and then plant into their final pots, if the weather plays along and we don't get a late cold snap.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • Willow99Willow99 Posts: 43
    Thank you for your feedback, much appreciated.
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