Tomato and pepper plants are still under the grow light in the basement. They are rapidly outgrowing their 4” pots. Yet, I haven’t even started hardening them off due to the persistent chilly weather in the forecast.
I have really two options:
A. Repot them. If I do this, the width of the larger pots means the plants won’t really all fit under the grow light width-wise. The grow light is only 2’ X 4’.
Therefore, many plants will get way too little light for maybe 10 days. Even if they do survive that, the hardening of process will be a lot more dicey, because it’ll be harder to acclimate to sunlight after being at even lower light conditions than they currently are.
Well, the long range forecast shows us approaching 80 by next weekend (the 14th/15th). So that’s probably my window. The few days before that should be in the 60s, so I can probably start hardening them off at that point.
what are your nighttime temps now. Mine have over grown too and I leave them outside in lower 40’s w/o wind exposure. They are much slower and stockier.
I am nowhere near your zone, but I have experience with leggy, greenhouse grown tomatoes, and the need to ‘reset’ them. One way is to make stem cuttings…just cut off the terminal 5 or 6 inches of the shoot, remove all leaves except a couple at the top, and poke the naked stem into a new pot. It will re-root very rapidly. The other way is to head them back (chop off the terminal shoot, leaving a node or two at the base. The plant will branch at the axils of these lower leaves. I have even had them form new branches from latent buds that aren’t located in the axils. I usually do both methods simultaneously, resulting in two plants. This will buy you a couple of weeks.
I would repot peppers and keep tomatoes as is. When you plant tomatoes you always can plant them in 45 degree angle and cover half of the stem (remove low leaves) and they will grow new roots fast. With peppers it is not that simple. How long do you think they will be in the pots? I saw your response to that question already. Keep all as is. The peppers will not be able to spread the roots that fast anyway.
It is always better to pot up large plants than to leave them stressed in smaller pots. The reason is that being pot-bound triggers the plant to transition from juvenile to reproductive phase. This permanently changes the physiology of the plant generally reducing the potential to produce fruit dramatically.
Hardening off is best accomplished by setting the plants under a shade tree so they get morning and evening sun for at least 4 days.
