I am also growing some plants outside in GA, and i moved my plants outside a few days ago. They seemed to survive the rain just fine and they're looking pretty good. If you moved yours outside in a few days, they should be just fine.

I would recommend you skip the 1 gal grow bag and go strait to the 3 gal. Transplanting more frequently just makes it that much more likely that something will go wrong, and you're not hurting anything by going strait to the 3 gal bags.

Post some pics and let us know how things are going. I have a post on this forum about my GA grow. Check it out...