yh mildew isn't that big of a deal i'll just watch it closely, atm my plants r sitting in this mini green house box to protect it from the elements, when do u think i should start letting them be exposed to the elements?
and should i leave them exposed just to wind to strengthen their stems on nice days , and protect them from rain for as long as possible?
or should i let them get rained on? I water them with rain water i collect, I prefer controlling the watering schedule for as long as possible
Well I guess that depends on how extreme the elements are around you. I'm in Northern Cali so it was kind of an easy process for me. I just keep everything protected for a few days in the shade then waited for a foggy day and put them all right out there.
Didn't have any problems doing that. All my seedlings lived and are now pretty strong.
You should be more worried about direct sun at first then rain. If you're getting a lot of direct sun you might want to be cautious hardening them off. Starting with a few hours per day of direct sun, then slowing increasing that. But if you've got fog that works perfect.
I wouldn't worry about rain until they are flowering. Unless you're getting strong winds I wouldn't worry about that too much either. I'd be more worried about what potentially the wind could blow onto the plants than harmful effects of wind blowing on the plants themselves.
Just look around your area and remove things that could potentially blow onto your plants and damage them.
As far as when, I'd say as soon as they start getting their 3rd set of leaves you should start the hardening off process.
looks good so far. just keep an eye on them mostly during flowering.
