Transplanting!
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Transplanting is an important step in the life of your plants.
If you do it carefully, your plants will have a better chance
of happily surviving the transition to outdoors. Rushing
your plants into the ground before they're properly
hardened off, or injuring the roots when you're handling
them, can injure them and delay flowering and fruiting.

Here are some guidelines for transplanting:

1. The seed packet will suggest when the seedlings can
be successfully transplanted outdoors. It might say
"Transplant outdoors 2 weeks before the average last frost
date" or "Transplant after danger of frost has past". Count
backwards 1 week to 10 days, and that's when you can begin
to harden off the seedlings.

2. Hardening off means gradually acclimating the plants to
outdoor temperatures, wind, and light. Here is a sample routine:

* The first day, set the flats or pots outside in partial shade and
protected from wind, for a couple of hours.

* Increase their time outside by an hour or so a day for
several days.

* Next, place the flats in full sun for half the day. Over the next
couple of days, gradually increase the number of hours they are
left in full sun. Be prepared to water frequently, because sun and
wind will quickly dry out the soil.

* Once they've become accustomed to full sun all day, leave them
outside overnight if there's no danger of frost.

* After about 10 days of gradual exposure to both day and night
conditions, your plants should be tough enough to take the shock
of transplanting.

3. Transplant on a cloudy day or in the evening so the plants will
have time to get settled in before the hot sun increases moisture loss.

4. Water the plants well before transplanting. The biggest risk newly
transplanted seedlings face is their roots drying out.

5. Prepare the soil and have a watering can ready. Working quickly,
cup the roots in one hand as you remove the transplants from their
containers, then set the transplants in the ground at the same depth
they were growing in the containers. (Tomatoes can be laid horizontally
in a trench so that only the top two or three sets of leaves are above the
soil. This allows a larger root system to develop.) Firm the soil gently
around the plants, and water them.