Should I strip the leaves off my seedlings before I move them outside? ... or just the big plants?
Moving outside?....
Poppysue, I've been hardening off some seedlings and didn't strip the leaves. These plants are from 4 to 18 inches tall. There were 2 leaves that got silvery/white looking, but out of 150 plants, I don't think that was bad at all. They are up to all day full sun now. I'm just waiting till it's a little safer as far as a frost to put them in the ground.
I do have some seedlings that are 24-30 inches tall and the leaves are huge. I will strip the leaves on these, because I know they will get shredded and/or sunburned really bad.
I just put mine out under the shade of a tree at first and move them slowly into full or half day sun..they get new leaves real quick that are sun tolerant and green.
This is first year for me in pots but this is working for me. I placed the pots outside on the patio in front of glass door. It gets full morning sun and no evening sun. They have really grown under this setup. I had some I placed on the other side of the house under a shade tree and they got midday sun only briefly. They did well also but not as good as the patio.