7 Tips for Effortless Winter House Plants
13- minute read
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With wintertime upon us and the holidays around the corner your house may need to be in tip top guest ready shape. This includes your house plants. Keeping up with your house plants in winter can be challenging with fewer hours of sunlight and colder temperatures, but your house plants can be effortless in wintertime with these 7 tips.
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Watering Your Plants in Wintertime
Temperature Control
Humidity
DIY Pest Prevention Sprays
Aesthetics
Fertilizing in Wintertime?
Pruning
Bonus- Incorporating your house plants in with your holiday decor.
Watering Your Plants in Wintertime
The first thing you want to do in winter is change your watering routine. As the days get shorter, and the temperatures grow colder, it is time to reduce the amount of water you are giving your house plants.
Watering Less Often
I am a firm believer in letting most of your house plants dry out completely in between waterings. You will notice that as we move into winter your plant’s soil will take longer to dry out between waterings. This is normal. Some plants may even go dormant during the coldest months.
Reducing your watering routine during your seasonal coldest months is best practice to keep your plants root health in check. I check all my plants twice a week for soil moisture levels.
In winter months, most of the time I can reduce from my twice a week summer watering routine to a once every 10 to 14 days routine. This is a nice winter break from all the watering that is necessary in summer.
Self-Watering Pots
Want to place your house plants on auto pilot?
Invest in self-watering pots. Potting your plants in self-watering pots is an effortless way to slash your watering routine in half.
My house plants that are in self-watering pots only need watering every 14-28 days. This is extremely helpful, especially if you are traveling for the holidays or just have a lot of holiday stress and do not have time to think about watering the plants for a period.
Moss Pole Care
If you have plants on moss poles, you can place a plastic bottle at the top of the pole and cut the bottom off the bottle then just fill the bottle and let it slowly seep into the moss and roots of your plants. This makes watering moss pole plants a breeze.
Also, if you are going on holiday this winter wrap your poles with plastic wrap to hold moisture so that your moss poles start wet longer. This will help keep your poles from drying out while you are away.
Temperature Control
Extreme temperatures are the hardest for me in the wintertime. I have also had to work a bit harder to keep my plants at stable temperatures in winter.
Over the years I have learned a few things that help keep the temperatures more stable.
Hot drafts
Drafts of warm air blowing from space heaters, furnaces, wood fireplaces, etc. can cause stress to your house plants. But what can you do about it? You have to keep the heat running to stay warm.
Placing your plants away from the direct blowing heat is the best way to prevent hot drafts from your plants. Using an oscillating fan to evenly distribute the warm air throughout the rooms most of your plants are in is another way to keep temperatures stable and not drafty.
Running a humidifier to keep the warm air from becoming too dry and drying out your plants too quickly is another way of combatting hot drafts.
Cold drafts
Cold drafts are a bit easier to manage, by not placing your plants in line with the opening and closing of exterior doors.
You also want to be aware of cold drafts from windows. If you have your plants next to windows in the wintertime, be sure it is plants that can tolerate higher levels of sunlight and place in a south facing window.
Place a thermometer next to the plant to be sure it is not staying too cold. I do not place many of my plants in windows, I use grow lights. But if you do have good sun exposure from windows for your plants, then absolutely do so. Just be aware of the temperatures.
Note- You may need to move plants away from windows at night if temperatures get too low.
Placing your plants away from cold drafts from the exterior doors, from cold drafty windows and under grow lights is the best way to keep your plants healthy throughout the wintertime.
Humidity
Keeping the humidity high enough in the wintertime can be challenging, depending on where you live. For me, as soon as the winter temperatures set in, the air in my home becomes warm and dry. Too dry for my house plants. Using a supplemental means of raising the humidity in your home is what is best for your plant's health.
Humidifiers
One of the easiest ways to raise the level of humidity in your home is to invest in a humidifier. There are lots of options available and depending on your budget you can decide which will suit your needs and budget best.
I have spent anywhere from $10-$70 on humidifiers. I have smaller ones for fewer plants placed in smaller areas. I also have a large humidifier for my plant room, which is where most of my house plants live.
Pebble Trays
Using pebble trays is a more cost-effective option and can be done efficiently. Place rocks or stones in the plant’s tray and fill with water. This will create humidity around the plants, but keep the roots protected from sitting in water and rotting.
Spray Bottles
This method I suggest using with caution. Spraying plants with spray bottles can help to raise the humidity for the plant, but it can also cause mildew, or other bacteria diseases that can cause damage to your plants.
For example, spraying the leaves of fuzzy leaved plants (i.e., African Violets) will cause more damage than good. However, if you are keeping ferns as house plants spraying them down weekly with a spray bottle is good for them.
Just use caution with spray bottles. You may choose to not even spray the plant itself; you may just spray the area around your plants to raise the humidity. Just monitor the plants you are choosing to spray more closely.
Grouping Plants Together
The easiest way ever to raise the humidity is to place your plants closer together. This is extremely easy for me, Because I have lots of plants and naturally must group them together for space.
The best way to get humidity to your plants is to see what method works best for you. Using this gauge for humidity is an effective way to monitor and measure the humidity levels in your house.
DIY Plant Pests Prevention Sprays
Keep Pests Away
Keeping pests away from your house plants is necessary to maintain their health. Doing weekly inspections of the foliage and soil is an effective way to stay on top of plant issues. Finding the pests right away and taking immediate prevention measures is the best-case scenario.
Keeping Leaves Dust Free
I have a lot of dust in my house, with dogs and the hustle and bustle of our life, my plants foliage tends to get dusty and need a good shower off in the sink or shower at least once a month.
Wiping the dust from your plants' leaves is essential in the wintertime. Here is why. The days are shorter in winter and so any chance your plants are getting to photosynthesis is shortened. Therefore, making sure that your plant is dust free so that it can efficiently use the light for food is essential.
Since you are already having to wipe the plants foliage, why not use the spray recipe for plant pest prevention and help to prevent pests in the process. Here is a sure-fire recipe for plant pest prevention, that can be easily used to keep away plant pests while wiping the dust from your plant's leaves.
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Aesthetics
The aesthetics of your house plants foliage is the main reason you are keeping them. This is especially true during the holiday season when you are more likely to have more guests over.
Leaves Dropping
No one wants to keep a leafless plant with no leaves and yellowing or browning leaves around for the holiday season. You want your plants to look their best when your guests come around.
The leaves dropping off some house plants is very normal, especially this time of year. Some plants may drop all their leaves in winter and go through a period of dormancy, this is the normal life cycle for some of your plants.
But for most of your tropical house plants they should not be dropping many leaves. A few are fine, but if you find your house plants are dropping a lot of leaves there may be an underlying issue causing this.
The number one reason plants start dropping their leaves is caused by environmental stress.
Ask yourself has this plant recently been repotted, if so, the plant may just be in shock from the transplant. Maintain the best possible environmental conditions for your repotted plants until they can adjust.
Next ask yourself if the plant needs to be repotted. Is this plant root bound in its pot? If so, you may just need to repot the plant and let it adjust.
The most common environmental stressors which may cause your plants to lose their leaves are too dry conditions, which we covered how to prevent by raising the humidity.
Also, cold drafts and less sunlight. Move your plants away from drafty areas, as previously discussed. You may need to supplement your plants with grow lights in wintertime. All plants must have sunlight to thrive, some more light than others.
Be sure that first you know how much sunlight your house plants require. Be sure you are providing the adequate amount. Supplementing with grow lights is an effortless way to ensure your plants are getting their proper amount of lighting needs.
Another thing to check and monitor is the nutritional needs of your plant. Plants may drop their leaves if they are not getting adequate nutrients. We will discuss fertilizers and plants nutritional needs in wintertime further in the next section.
The second most common reason your plants drop their leaves may be caused by pests and disease. Be sure you are doing routine weekly checks for pests and disease. Visual inspection may not be enough.
For fungus gnats or soil mites you may need to stir up the soil to see if pests are present. For mites and other pests, you may need to use a microscope. It is a little investment, but here is the microscope I use for my weekly plant pests' inspections.
Looking at your plant's foliage at the microscopic level you are more likely to catch pests and disease infestations earlier which means better chances of a faster recovery. Also, the less time the pests have to invade your plants the less damage and less chance of the pests spreading to other or all your plants.
Yellowing Leaves
Yellowing of your plant's leaves could be just a natural process your plant is going through. Some plants may die their leaves off slowly by yellowing and then dropping that leaf. If you have checked that all the plants’ environmental conditions are good, your plants are getting their nutritional needs met, and there are no present pests or disease the plant is suffering from then it could just be normal.
Is this plant pushing a new leaf and still actively growing? If so, just be sure to closely monitor that plant and it should be fine.
However, if the plant is environmentally stressed or suffering from disease or pest invasion this may be the answer to the yellowing of leaves.
The number one reason plants' leaves start yellowing is inconsistent watering. Either your plant is getting too much or too little water. Too much water and too little water can both result in your plant dying.
Be sure your plants are not sitting in water, be sure to drain off all excess water after giving them a drink. Be sure your plants' soil is not too heavy and has good drainage. If the soil is not drying out within a week to ten days, you may need to repot into a more aerated soil. Also, check that your plant’s pot has proper drainage.
If your plants are in self-watering pots letting them go through a dry out period is necessary, especially in winter. If your plant is not actively growing new leaves you should cut back on watering.
Track how often you must water your plants. When is the soil drying completely out? If their soil stays wet for too long the yellowing of their leaves may be due to root rot. However, if your plant is drying out too quickly you may need to repot into a large pot or a denser soil.
Resolving inconsistent watering is easily resolved by keeping a soil moisture meter and a record of your plants watering requirements. Some plants are thirstier than others. Getting to know your plants' needs is part of the connection you have with your plant.
I have plants that I have had for over a decade and their watering needs are like clockwork for me. Always remember it is far better to underwater than overwater, especially in winter. I let most of my plants dry completely out before watering. This ensures that overwatering and root rot is not happening to my plants.
Just be sure that your plants are not going dry for too long as this can also cause root damage known as dry rot. Too much or too little water is most of the time the problem with yellowing leaves.
Fertilizing in Wintertime?
You may be asking yourself if your plants even need fertilizer in the winter months. Many plants will go through a period of dormancy and stop growing during the wintertime. This is normal and it gives the plant time to rest.
No Fertilizer
If this is the case, you will notice your plant has stopped growing and needs less water. If this is what is happening, then you will not need to fertilize your plant until you see new growth again.
However, if the environmental conditions of your plants do not go through much of a seasonal change, meaning they are consistently kept under grow lights, and in the same temperature range throughout the year your plants may never go through dormancy or a rest period.
Yes, Fertilize
If this is the case, then your plant’s nutritional needs may stay the same throughout the year. However, it is normally somewhere in between. My plants are not affected as much by seasonal conditions as they are kept in a consistent environment. I do notice that they do slow down their growth rate during the wintertime, even in a consistent environment.
Here is what I do and what has worked for me for over a decade of house plant keeping. I cut my plants nutrition in half during the winter. Then I slowly increase the nutrients in the spring when the growth rate is starting to increase.
Here is the main fertilizer I use for my house plants. I will be posting more about fertilizers in a post coming soon! So, stay tuned!
Pruning
The same as dusting and cleaning leaves is important, so is pruning of your plants dried up leaves. Keeping your plants regularly pruned not only keeps them looking better, but it also helps to encourage new growth.
While you are already wiping down, dusting, and using pest prevention routinely on your plants. Be sure to also prune back any damaged or dried up leaves. In nature, plants are pruned of their dried leaves from wind and rain, or other acts of nature. Since house plants are kept out of the natural elements this means you will have to prune the dried leaves from your plants.
Bonus: Incorporating your house plants in with your home holiday decor.
Dress your plants up for the holidays!
If it is repotting time pick up a seasonally inspired pot to put it in. You may keep your plants in inner pots (like clear plastic pots) so you can place them in a seasonal pot easily by just placing them inside the outer pot. Many of my plants are in 2 pots like this.
If your plants pot is a neutral color, you can decorate the pot by tying a bow around it or wrapping the pot in seasonal wrapping paper. Just be sure not to cover the drainage. Poke a hole in the bottom of the paper.
If your plant has strong branches/ leaves you can hang Christmas ornaments on them.
Displaying seasonal plants around your home during the holidays is also a clever way to incorporate your house plants with your holiday decor. I grow an array of colorful bloomed holiday cactus during the holidays.
Poinsettias, Cyclamens, Amaryllis, Norfolk Island Pine, and Thanksgiving or Christmas cactus are a few plants to add to your collection during the holidays.
These are just a few ways to incorporate your house plants in with your holiday decor. Get creative and have fun with it.
I hope you have found some ways to help your plants thrive in wintertime. I also love to inspire others to not give up on their house plant hobby. Wintertime can make or break your plant hobby, but with these 7 tips you can make your wintertime plant care almost effortless and keep your plants thriving.
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