Accidental hardening of courgette
Stephanie newish gardener
Posts: 516
Having started to harden off my courgette I managed to forget it and left it outside on Thursday and have only remembered it this morning. The weather up here in Aberdeenshire has been 10-13 during the day and down to about 4 at night. The courgette had only been going outside for a few days.
What should I do with it now?
I have an unheated greenhouse and a cold frame so should I put it in there? The forecast for the week is much the same so not exactly tropical at night but pleasant enough during the day.
Also should I pot it on into something a bit bigger now? I'm assuming it won't take kindly to being planted out just yet. The pic shows the edge of one of the leaves going a bit pale and I can see that a couple of the leaves have lighter speckles on them so I hope it hasn't suffered too much
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It'll be struggling in that tiny pot, pot up asap otherwise it looks fine. I wouldn't leave it outside overnight yet
I'll start hardening mine off around mid-May and plant out in June
Last edited: 06 May 2017 11:02:58
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Yes pot on and keep in the greenhouse or cold frame and shut them up at night. There's no sign of frost damage that I can see, so you've probably got away with it but no point continuing to push your luck.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I've been meaning to ask separately about cold greenhouses and cold frames so I'll ask now - are they sufficiently warmer at night than being outside at this time of year? My cold frame has a gap at the back at the top as the glass doesn't fit fully so it isn't as snug as it might be. The greenhouse seems ok - a vine survived the winter with no heating and just some fleece, but I wasn't sure about early plants and seeds so thought indoors was best, though equally concerned nto to mollycoddle!
Pic shows cold frame in temp home, it will go in front of shed once I've touched up the last of the paint and then the wall of the shed will provide more reassuring insulation I think
Excuse the general debris, today is tidy up day after cutting a load of wood!
The usual advice is to make sure you close up the greenhouse/coldframe by about 4pm, so the warmth of the afternoon (hopefully) is kept in and that holds the temperature up for longer. You could get a thermometer that records the highest and lowest temperatures and that would tell you how cold it gets in there.
If your coldframe is gappy then it won't keep the heat in - could you attach a strip of plastic or fabric of some kind that would close the gap but still move with the frame?
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
One of my next purchases is going to be a decent thermometer. I have seen one recommended on another thread here and it's currently in my Amazon wish list.
The gap in the cold frame is at the top of the back wall so doesn't need to move. I have a bit of polycarbonate that I can probably cut to fit which should help.
Currently considering the space with a beer and a fire in a log - who says you can't sit outside in the evening in Scotland?!