newb with an outdoor question

I have read all the posts on germinating which I pulled off with no problem... thank you all for the info.

My problem is I think I messed up 3 of my babies. I have a total of 7 plants - I figured for my first time I would make a few mistakes and lose a few. The 3 in question are a little over 2 weeks old. I have started putting them outside in the morning to try to get them ready for permanent outside status. Yestarday I checked on them and found them bent over. The stems seem too thin to support them. I staked and tied them to help them stand - is this the right thing to do?

The other 4 seem to be holding themselves up with no problem, however they are a bit smaller at this point.

BTW - don't mind the fuzzy yarn I used - my 4 year old wanted something soft to help mommy's "cilantro" plants.

a plant gets a thicker stem the same way you would go about getting thicker arms, see the wind blows the stem back and forth, causeing tiny damages to the stem, and in response the plant repairs over it thicker so it will withstand it better the next time, tying them too posts like you have is one way to fix this but not ideal, see you are now taking away the wind factor of thickening those stems, the best thing to do would be to bury them deeper, covering most of the stem, usually they get all gangly like that because the sun or light isn't strong enough and they stretch to try and get closer to the source. another thing you might try, since it seems you just planted them in those larger pots and there isn't much room left for more dirt would be what is called LST or low stress training, just untie them once of twice a day and lightly bend the stems back and forth, being carefull not to break them, they are very delecate at this stage! within a week or two they should get strong enough that you can once again take the stake out for good and put them at the mercy of the wind. another idea would be to tye them off about an inch from the soil, so the top half can still move around, maybe even point a fan at them, ocelating would be best, and let them beef up for a week that way, unstake and cover the bottom inch with soil.

trans plant them n put them under a few more inches of soil and take off the posts...like beaner said wind makes them stronger....after trans them ull b all good....also i read that if growing all the same strain...and if sum are growing faster than the other 1s those tend to be males...good luck

Thanks so much for the advice. I untied them and the 2 smaller ones seem to be ok - I will watch them and see. The taller one fell right over so I will be repotting her tonight. Thanks again!