If you buy vegetable plants in the stores near you.....

Does that mean that it's safe to keep them outdoors the way you found them?

Are they trying to trick me into buying them and putting them out too early? ;)

Seriously, I saw some plants at Fred Meyer that looked nice and healthy. I picked up a sweet red pepper plant, and set it outside under a hot-cap. What do you think?

It's still in the low 40's at night.

Usually store bought plants are green house plants. They are tender and will wind and sunburn unless protected for a week or so. (Hardened off). Hot caps act as a mini- green house. You will have to be careful when you open the top to let the plant grow out but they do a great job of jump starting tender plants. One old folks trick for transplanting tender plants, is to shade them by cutting small branches from leafed out trees and shrubs and sticking them in the ground so that they they shade the plant and protect it from the wind. By the time the leaves dry up the plant is ready to go on its own. Low forties won't hurt, but unless the soil is warm, nit much growth occurs. The hot caps will also trap heat and warm the soil.

No, they probably came out of a greenhouse and have not been acclimated to the real world so they will be tender for a while. You need to protect them if you set them out right away, or you can move the pots around for a few days to give them a little sun, some wind to help strengthen the stems, and put them inside a shed or under a porch at night for a few nights. Some grass clippings or leaves over the plant will give some protection from harsh conditions and the plant will grow out of the blanket.

Yes, if you kill the plant you will be back there buying more. The trick is to outsmart them by taking such good care of the plant that you don't have to replace it.

Have fun, your garden season is earlier than ours by about a month.

Here in New Jersey starting last year, many local garden centers are selling plants that are clearly labeled "Outdoor Acclamated - Ready to Plant", especially tomatoes, peppers & eggplant. In my location with nights still in the mid 40's it's still about 4 weeks too early to expect a planting to survive no less grow. With all the work involved in trying to protect an over early planting, as acclamated as the plants might be, I'd rather wait till about May 15th to plant my tomatoes and peppers. I know from past experience that come July 1st you'd be hard pressed to tell an early planting from one done at the proper time.

Rich

The garden centers I worked in always had plants in weeks before the last frost date and as soon as there was a warm, sunny day, the shelves would empty out in no time. We'd fill them back up, we'd have a freeze and away they'd go again. This usually happened about three or four times until the weather stabilized. Same thing every year. Some people never learn.