Yes, it would be better to wait for warm soil temperatures, but I believe all of us down here are rapidly running out of space under the lights. Keeping the plants in pots allows you to move them in and out of protected areas, but my plants are doubling in size each week at this stage. I just do not have much space with good light. Next weekend I'm delivering four plants to a friend who lives one block off Galveston Bay and I just hope I have time to harden them off before planting down there. I loose young plants here and there, but the window of good weather around these parts is very limited and impossible to predict. If you plant in ground early you may loose a plant or get a spectacular harvest. My backup is staged starts of extra seedlings and if all my starts go bad there is always the nursery.
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