The great outdoors

enchant · April 24, 2018

After a winter that refused to end, we're in a nice stretch of weather with lots of sun and temps in the upper 50's / low 60's. My seedlings aren't completely hardened enough to just leave them out for hours in the direct sunlight, but I was wondering if it would do them good to get them outside in the shade. My back deck doesn't get direct sunlight till afternoon. I'd love to leave them out there. I'll give them the direct sun in increasing dosages, starting with 1 hour yesterday.

I don't know how accurate the light meter on my cell phone is, but if nothing else, I think it can reliably tell me if something is brighter than something else. My artificial light is reading at about 20k lux. Out in the shade, it's only about 6k. Direct sunlight is 130k. So from a simple brightness standpoint, the artificial light is better than outdoor shade. But there's no breeze indoors either.

ako1974 · April 24, 2018

I'm very leery of direct sun, but wind has more proven to be my undoing. Using a greenhouse and sheltered locations, I can usually always account for the amount of direct light - I have my yard mentally mapped out for this as the season progresses, trees leaf out, the arc of the sun moves, etc. But wind is the big pain.

April 24, 2018	#1
enchant Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Boston, MA Posts: 142	The great outdoors After a winter that refused to end, we're in a nice stretch of weather with lots of sun and temps in the upper 50's / low 60's. My seedlings aren't completely hardened enough to just leave them out for hours in the direct sunlight, but I was wondering if it would do them good to get them outside in the shade. My back deck doesn't get direct sunlight till afternoon. I'd love to leave them out there. I'll give them the direct sun in increasing dosages, starting with 1 hour yesterday. I don't know how accurate the light meter on my cell phone is, but if nothing else, I think it can reliably tell me if something is brighter than something else. My artificial light is reading at about 20k lux. Out in the shade, it's only about 6k. Direct sunlight is 130k. So from a simple brightness standpoint, the artificial light is better than outdoor shade. But there's no breeze indoors either.

April 24, 2018	#2
ako1974 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2017 Location: New Jersey Posts: 109	I'm very leery of direct sun, but wind has more proven to be my undoing. Using a greenhouse and sheltered locations, I can usually always account for the amount of direct light - I have my yard mentally mapped out for this as the season progresses, trees leaf out, the arc of the sun moves, etc. But wind is the big pain. __________________ Arne Zone 6A, Northern NJ