Gardening advice: don’t worry about night time temperatures

I see so many people, even on professional gardening websites like RHS, saying how important (sometimes vital) that you only plant certain plants out (or keep them outside in pots) when the soil and air temperature is above a certain number, usually 10°C+.

But, in my experience, it rarely makes a difference if the nights get below 10°C, even down as low as 3-5°C. Really, as long as they are kept warm enough during the day they don’t seem to mind that at nighttime.

I’m not just talking about cold-hardy plants, I’m talking about even summer, heat-loving plants too.

I grow tropical plants as well as native English ones, and even the so-called “sensitive” tropical ones can tolerate cool nights. Things like avocados, bananas, dragon fruit, papaya, pineapple, ginger root, etc.

Things like courgettes and all sorts of squashes, melons, tomatoes, etc, etc (basically the typical summer plants).

I leave them in the greenhouse all day (some actually out-out) and it can drop as low as 3°C at night here (NW, near Liverpool), but they survive and all grow and thrive.

So, here’s the point of my post: don’t worry about the temperature at night. As long as it doesn’t get regularly frosty in spring, just plant them (the greenhouse would be best but even when I plant them out-out, they still sprout). They’ll grow fine.

Important: The windchill factor should be taken into account. That matters much more than air and soil temperature (in my experience). So protect them if it’s more than a bit breezy, but other than that, go ahead and don’t stress about the temperature. I used to and slowly learned how it isn’t as important as people say (though, of course, warm nights would be the most ideal for them).✌️