HousePlantJoy is supported by our audience. When you purchase through one of our links, we may earn a small affiliate commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Your cost is not affected.
==================
5 Best Tips for Winter Care for Houseplants – Plus a Bonus
Winter Care for Houseplants
Although there are a lot of exceptional books available on the vegetation of the houseplants. But it is also a fact that few of them addressed the detail of plant care in the winter season. Living relatively far north, we experience vast seasonal fluctuations not only in temperature but in the duration and intensity of daylight as well. Because the temperature, water, nutrient, and humidity requirements of houseplants are all inter-dependent, these changes must be taken into consideration to keep plants healthy all year round.
When your garden outside has little to brag about, the houseplants lift the spirit and keep the air fresher. Believe it or not, it is a fact that if your plant grows indoors it remains familiar with the seasons.
Your houseplants rest mostly in winter months. Even though their color stays sparkling, indoor plants substantially go to sleep. As compared to indoor plants, houseplants require less hands-on care. You just need to maintain a level of keen attention to their potential needs.
The winter season is likely one of the easiest times of the year to kill a houseplant. It becomes more difficult to winter care for houseplants. You just need to maintain their room temperature, humidity, water, and nutrients if you want your houseplant alive. Here we are going to discuss the major points of winter care for houseplants. Keep reading this article if you want to care for your houseplant in winter.
Top 5 Tips of Winter Care for Houseplants
Here we are going to discuss the best and profitable tips that will keep your house plant healthier in winter:
1. Light / Manifestation
As you know that the sun plays hide and seek with the earth in winters and slips lower in the cloudy sky. However, the light level through the window drops down to 50% as compared in summer. Some houseplants that grow up near a very sunny or northern window in the summer should need the exposure of northern and southern windows in winter. Moreover, plants close to western or southern windows that need to be separated from light in summer might have the option to withstand direct sun in winter.
Winter months usually have darker and shorter days. If you observe that your houseplant isn’t getting the exposure or light they need, then you must move them to a different location for more bright light. Before moving near to the window, be sure that they don’t touch the cold windows at night. Safe them from catching any drafts from your window.
If the sunlight is coming from one side, your houseplants need to be rotated even in the winter. You can rotate your houseplant every month or less depending on how they are affected by the light.
To help houseplants survive in winter you need to do some more steps as follows:
- Move your houseplants closer to the window, but they shouldn’t touch the cold glass.
- You must clean the window to allow the maximum light to transmit to the houseplants.
- Keep washing the dust from the houseplants to assure the availability of maximum light.
- If your plants are in a darker place, then shift them to a new area with brighter windows in winter.
- You can add some artificial light, such as fluorescent bulbs. They provide adequate light. Fluorescent bulbs produce less heat and are also cheaper than traditional grow lights.
- Position the bulbs away around 4-12 inches from houseplants for effective results.
2. Avoid Temperature Changes
When your plant has changed, help it keep its leaves by limiting temperature boundaries. Pull plants back from cold windows and find them away from wellsprings of warmth, for example, ovens, chimneys, and radiators.
Most of the houseplants are frigid and prefer hotness between 65oF to 75oF during the daytime and concerning 10oF cooler at night. For many of the houseplants temperatures below 50oF might cause problems. Just like close accessibility to a heating source, houseplants don’t like the freezing drafts.
Houseplants for the most part come from tropical areas. They arrive in a wide assortment of tones, sizes, and shapes, and they can be specific about the temperature they like. Ensure you know the ideal temperature for the plants you have and watch out for the indoor regulator. Temperatures somewhere close to 55 – 85 Fahrenheit are typically useful for tropical plants, yet it can change unpredictably upon the types of plants you have.
Adjust the temperature when needed
You need to adjust the temperature according to your houseplant needs. But, keep in mind these some considerations of winter care for houseplants:
- Keep your plants away from any standing heaters and heating port.
- Avoid putting your houseplants near those doors which open regularly.
- Some houseplants don’t mind being cooler at night.
- Avoid placing them near-freezing abstracts or any kind of heating source.
- Keep houseplants many inches away from the outermost windows.
- In chilly areas, if windows frost, for the time being, move plants from windows at nightfall. You can likewise slip a hefty shade or other protecting material among plants and glass.
3. Control too Much Watering
On the cold days, mostly the problem is not that houseplants don’t get enough water. But instead, people give them an excessive amount of water. The soil in houseplants won’t dry out as quickly and the roots don’t require as much water right now.
Water your houseplants generally at regular intervals. In the colder time of year, slice back the recurrence back to each 2-3 weeks. How frequently for you will change contingent upon the kind of plants you have, the pot sizes and soil cosmetics, light conditions, and how warm your house is.
During winter, the days become shorter and houseplants collect less ambient light through your windows. As a result, the process of photosynthesis slows down and the plant enters a resting phase.
Plants that are resting don’t need as much water as developing plants do during spring and summer. Before watering your houseplants, consistently utilize a finger to check the dirt and give your plants a decent splashing just at whatever point the soil is dry.
Consider these points to save your houseplant in winter:
- Keep using room temperature water instead of ice-cold water.
- Decrease the amount of water in winters.
- Don’t simply spot test the dirt surface. Houseplants need water when their root area is patched. Stick your finger into soil up to 2 inches. On the off chance where the soil in the plant is dry, then water.
- If you moisturize winter rooms, houseplants won’t require water as often because dry air also means water.
- Never allow your plants to sit overnight when you do watering.
- Lift the pot. Soil is lighter when it’s dry. Figure out how wet soil feels by lifting pots following watering.
- Never let too much water be left in the saucer.
4. Add up a Little Humidity
To do winter care for houseplants, add up a little humidity. They probably not be too thirsty in winters, but that doesn’t mean they value the dry air. Mist regularly and put tropical houseplants on a tray off rocks with less water in it.
Throughout the cold weather months the expanded warmth from the heaters, absence of daylight, and expanded humidity due to humidifiers, all can result in pests. Irritations like arachnid parasites, organism gnats, mealybugs, and others. Be careful of them on your plants and find a way to kill them when they show up.
Homes may offer just 5-10% relative mugginess in winter. Houseplants like 40-half. Indications of low mugginess weight on plants incorporate earthy colored leaf tips and the presence of bugs like Spider Mites.
Most of the houseplants flourish with humidity levels of from 40 to 60 %. In a house, in winter the humidity level can drop to 35%. You need to add-up more humidity by using a humidifier.
Here are some points to keep in mind:
- Make a humidity pot for plants to add-up moisture.
- Place a superficial layer of pebbles, add some water to the level of pebbles, and put the pot in a warm spot.
- Use Humidifiers because it has the ability to mix up with dry air and create humidity around the plant
- Pots should be set on pebbles in a tray of water with pot bases above the waterline.
- Pebbles trays can also be used to increase humidity while keeping the leaves dry.
5. Nutrients
Houseplants all need nutrients at some time, but people tend to over-fertilize. A newly purchased house plant usually will not need fertilizing for 3 or 4 months. During the bright light months, mid-April through mid-September, most plants growing vigorously in well-lit situations should be fertilized every 4 to 6 weeks.
It is best not to fertilize during the low light fall and winter months unless your plants show definite signs of deficiency, or if your plants are in a very large, bright window growing rapidly. If this is the case, one or two applications, mixed half-strength according to the directions, might be in order. Don’t try to jolt a plant out of a slow growth period. Fertilizing could only harm. Stores abound with house plant fertilizers. Almost any will do, provided you follow label directions carefully. Never fertilize a dry plant because root injury is possible. Instead, water the plant thoroughly, then follow immediately with a second watering containing the fertilizer solution.
More Tips for “Winter Care for Houseplants”
Let’s discuss extra tips for caring for your houseplants in the winter months:
- Wait to repot: Spring is the best and ideal opportunity to repot plants, however on the off chance that your existing plants or some you bought in winter need more space, work someplace warm and do so delicately. Follow the tips above and skip fertilizing until spring.
- Give plants dusting: Eliminate any dusty leaves from your houseplants with a soft cloth dipped in water. Taken off alone, the residue can keep your plant from completely retaining the supplements it needs from the climate.
- Avoid Draft: Most of the houseplants like sunny and bright windows but be careful of their drafts. House permitting to chill air from open windows and doors. Try to place them where the cold drafts never get a single chance to harm them. Try not to break windows and check grouting on any close by windows to ensure they are all around fixed and keep on being sans draft.
- Break off your feeding schedule: You might be skewed to prepare to support development, yet your plants won’t be fascinated until the days get longer and the sun gets more grounded. Cut back how frequently you oversee home-made food to once at regular intervals and bit by bit increment to like clockwork as it draws nearer to spring to foresee their development sprays.
- Try a new window: If your plants pass the mid-year in one window, you may put them close to another for the colder time of year. Or on the other hand wash the window glass, all around, to allow in somewhat more light.
- Get new planters: Maybe this won’t help your houseplants. But if you’ve bought your houseplants back in the summer month, you should have put them in the pots that turn over warmer times. As the winter approaches, consider reforming your planter to something all the more occasionally suitable. Solid planters are an undisputed top choice of our own.
In Summary:
The major key points you must pay attention to are lightning and watering. It’s very easy to water houseplants gradually in the winter months, so roll back on the amount and frequency. These two are the best winter care for houseplants. If your houseplants are looking dull and sad, they could very well require more and more light for the winter’s darker months.
It is a fact that plants add so much beauty, a lovely environment, and life to our sweet homes. They can be saved from the breathtaking winters if properly cared for. You can let your houseplants rest in winter and undergo their natural cycles. You can indulge them in summer and spring.
Read More
Can Houseplants Go Outside in Summer?
Houseplants- Natural Remedies for Stress
Are Terrariums Easy to Care For?
What are the recommended indoor temperatures for winter in your area?
