9 Steps for Bringing Your Plants Back Inside
9- minute read
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Do you put your house plants outside in the late spring/ early summer? I do and I know a lot of people do to give the best benefits of the growing season for their house plants.
I am always so happy to move plants outdoors in the late spring but bringing them back indoors can be somewhat of a challenge.
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However, I have made it a fun activity to bring my plants back inside. Here are all the steps I take to make this event successful and fun instead of an overwhelming ruckus:
Benefits of Plants Outdoors
Make it a Fun Event
Watch Your Temps
Debug Your Plants
Repotting Your Plants
Give them Shade Time
Quarantine?
Humidity and Air Circulation
Providing TLC while Your Plants Acclimate
Benefits of House Plants Outdoors
Moving your house plants outdoors in the late spring for the growing season provides your plants with many benefits.
The increased hours of sunlight and light intensity gives your plants the best growth potential. Just be sure that you know what light levels your plants enjoy and be sure to acclimatize them to the new higher light intensity.
I do this by moving my plants outdoors into a shaded spot at first. Then as the plant adjusts, I allow the morning full sun. Morning sunlight is not as intense as the afternoon. Some plants may not be suited to full afternoon sunlight. Be sure you can provide afternoon shade if needed.
Being outside your plants will enjoy the natural seasonal humidity levels and now your humidifier can take a vacation for the summer.
Better air circulation can be a good thing and a bad thing. While air circulation is important for your plants, too much wind can be bad for potted plants. The main thing to be aware of is a strong wind or storms that may knock over your potted plants.
When I place my plants outside, I make sure they are in a spot that will protect them from being knocked over by a strong wind. Sometimes this is unavoidable, for example a storm may come up and blow your plants over unexpectantly. I just do the best I can. And be sure to check my plants every day.
I have had plants get knocked over and have had to fix their pots, but honestly, they recover quickly and if you check on them and fix any wind damage as soon as possible, your plants will be fine.
Rainwater is another good benefit your plants will experience outdoors for the summer. There is something about getting rainwater naturally, it is just so much better than any watering we can do manually.
Just be sure to check your plants and if you are receiving a high amount of rainfall in your area, you may need to shelter your plants so that they do not receive too much water.
My cacti and succulents spend the summer under the awning, this way they are not victims of too much rainwater. Remember the opposite may be true too.
If your area is going through drought or just in the intense heat of the summer, you will need to water your plants more often.
The growth your plants gain from being outside is worth the little extra work. Also, the part I love the most is the sun stressing. My cacti and succulents and a few of my other plants have gotten high sun stress that is absolutely stunning.
For me, the benefits outweigh the negatives and that is why I put plants outdoors every spring. It creates an inviting outdoor space for me I look forward to year after year.
Now that you know the benefits of putting your plants outdoors let’s talk more about what things need to be done to bring them back inside in fall.
Make it a fun event
Life is stressful and can be overwhelming. Your plants should not be overwhelming or stressful. Bringing in the plants for wintertime can be overwhelming and stressful if you let it.
Making this event fun is easy with these few tips.
Harvesting and Pruning- I love this part. Getting to harvest all the fruits of your summer labor is exciting.
You may not have any harvest if you are just growing house plants outside, but you have gotten some significant growth over the summer pruning back your plants may be necessary. This is also a fun time to take some cuttings for propagation.
Also, I enjoy having a photo shoot with my plants. Here are some things I do before taking photos of my plants.
Do any repotting if necessary
Harvest and prune
Spray down the foliage
Wipe off excess water and do a thorough pest's inspection
Do any adjustments or necessary things to make your plants look their best
Now photo shoot time! Find a good background and shoot away. Having these photos to record your growing season is useful. I find myself going back through end of season photos of my plants all the time to make notes of what worked that season and what did not work.
And it is fun! I have a lot of fun making my plants look stellar and getting great shots to document it. Make fun fall photo backgrounds. I set up some of my plants photo shoots and make them more fun.
Tip- Taking great photos of your plants can be a small income for you as well. You can sell your photos on Picfair, Shutterstock, and Etsy.
Stay positive and enjoy your plant growing hobby!
Watch the Temperatures
Be sure you are watching the weather and know when your area’s normal first frost date or find it here. The best time to bring plants indoors is when the high daytime temperatures are consistently in the upper 60’s to mid 70’s. These are normal house temperatures and make the transition easier.
I usually wait until we are not having to turn the air conditioning on anymore for the season. This gives a suitable time for my plants to transition because we normally have doors and windows open a lot during these few short weeks before it starts getting too cold.
Knowing your plant’s lowest tolerable temperatures is good as well. Many Tropicals cannot tolerate less than 55-60 degrees. Research your specific plant’s low temperatures so you know when you need to get them inside.
Debug Your Plants
Use Neem oil and or castile soaps. Add a little castile soap to your watering can and water your plants thoroughly, this will clean the soil. This will kill fungus gnats and any pests in your soil too. You can either repot them if needed, water them with it, or just dunk the whole plant and pot into the solution.
Visually inspect the stems and leaves. Some pests can take over leaves and you may have to remove them if the pest infestations are a large amount.
I get the water hose out and do a good spray down. Using the hose will remove many pests from the water pressure, this makes pest removal a lot easier too. It also is an effective way to remove dirt and derby from your plant’s leaves and your pots.
Other things I use to treat and prevent pests:
Silica is included in every watering for my plants now. I only recently started using silica on my house plants, but I have researched that silica can help your plants to be more resilient from pests and disease. Therefore, I have added silica to my weekly watering routine for every plant.
Neem oil, horticultural soaps, and castile soaps are all good organic ways to get rid of pests. Here are a couple of DIY solutions I have recently learned about to help prevent pests on your plants.
I have used house plants systemics you can buy here. These granules can be watered into the soil and will help to eliminate and prevent pests. This product does take a little longer to start working and a lot of times if there is a pest infestation it may take a couple rounds to work completely.
I normally start my pest regimens about 3 to 4 weeks before bringing my plants back inside.
Repotting Your Plants
If you missed repotting in the spring, it is perfectly fine to do your repots in the early fall. I currently have about 11 repots to do with my house plants living outside before they come back inside.
I suggest getting them repotted at least a couple of weeks before bringing them inside. This will give them some time to adjust to the new pot and help them to do better when brought inside.
I do not suggest repotting at the last minute and bringing back inside. This will just be too much stress all at once and can send your plant backwards. So, watch your weather and be sure you plan repots for optimal timing.
If you are looking for pots or soil/substrates, please take a look at these pots and my DIY substrates.
Give Your Plants Shade Time
Before going back indoors it is a smart idea to decrease the amount of sunlight your plants are receiving gradually. This will give your plants a chance to start acclimating to indoor life with less sunlight.
Reducing the hours of sunlight your plants are receiving while still outdoors will help your plants to naturally adjust to lower light levels before coming back inside.
This process happens naturally where I have my plants located outside. As the season starts to change the sunlight shifts to where there is not as much direct sunlight on my plants starting in mid-August. I have already reduced watering because of less sunlight.
Quarantine?
Quarantining your plants is highly recommended. Especially if you have plants inside. I am a fan of quarantining, but I am terrible about it. I have so many plants, so therefore, it is hard to find the space for all my plants anyway, so quarantining is a real struggle.
However, if you have the space to quarantine your plants for sure do it. Any time you can save plants from pests' infestations do it!
Humidity and Air Circulation
Providing humidity for your plants once back indoors is critical. Here are some uncomplicated ways to increase the humidity for your plants.
Place a tray of pebbles under your plants pot and add about an inch of water
Run a humidifier
Leave your watering can or cans full of water in the room with your plants
Grouping your plants together increases humidity
Some plants do well in the bathroom, which naturally has more humidity
Using a plant mister or sprayer (controversial topic, some say it is not effective at all and may invite other problems to your plants, such as fungal diseases)
Running fans and opening the windows, when the weather permits, is best practice to keep good air circulation. I open windows when the weather is nice and run oscillating fans in the rooms with my plants to help keep good air flow.
Provide 50-60% humidity to the room your plants are coming into. You can use a humidifier or pebble trays to increase humidity. I use this humidifier, and I leave my watering cans full of water in the room with my plants to help with increasing the humidity.
Providing TLC While Your Plants Acclimate
Once all your plants are back inside it is important to pay close attention to them for the first few weeks. Your plants are trying to adjust to a whole new environment so give them the tender loving care they deserve. Setting your space up successfully is key to keeping your plants alive and helping them to adjust well.
Here is my main checklist of setting up a successful indoor environment:
Grow lights or bright, indirect sunlight
Stable temperatures, no drafts of cold or hot
Humidity, run a humidifier if necessary
Run a fan if necessary, having good air circulation is important
Reduce your watering, I normally let my plant’s soil dry almost all the way out before watering again
Keeping your environment stable and consistent is the best way to help your house plants adjust. I keep a close eye on mine, checking them daily, for a few weeks to be sure they are adjusting well.
I hope I was able to teach and/or inspire you with my process for bringing my plants back indoors in late fall. If you have other things you do for your plants when bringing them in for the winter, please share in the comments below. I would love to hear about it!
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