Winter Houseplant Care: Tips on Keeping Your Indoor Plants Healthy Through the Season

 Winter Houseplant Care: Tips on Keeping Your Indoor Plants Healthy Through the Season  

When it comes to keeping your houseplants healthy, winter brings its own set of challenges. Shorter days, lower light levels, low humidity, are signals to your houseplants that it’s time to slow down and conserve energy.  This natural response is called dormancy and understanding dormancy is key to winter houseplant care.  

When houseplants go dormant during the winter, their growth slows and may stop completely. You might notice fewer new leaves or stems. Some plants might shed a few leaves, or their leaves might turn yellow or brown before falling off. Flowering plants often stop producing new blooms. These activities allow houseplants to conserve energy and resources during unfavorable conditions.  

In response, we often overlook the effects of the season, and think our plants are declining for other reasons and step up our care including more water and fertilizer.  

A better approach would be to work on the environment our plants are growing in, including improving lighting, raising humidity levels and reducing the negative effects forced air furnaces and fireplaces have on houseplant quality.  

During colder months, heating systems circulate dry, warm air, which typically creates an environment that has low humidity. In addition, plants located near heating or cooling vents are subject to increased air movement which dries them out faster. Growth stops and many houseplants develop leaf spots or brown tips because of the lack of humidity.  

Simple cultural procedures can increase the relative humidity around houseplants. Group plants together. The water evaporating from the potting soil, plus water lost through the plant foliage (transpiration), will increase the relative humidity.

Another method is to place houseplants on saucers filled with pebbles or gravel and water. If you go this route, make sure the bottoms of the pots are above the water level. Adding a room humidifier works too. 

  

To counter the effects of inadequate lighting, move plants closer to windows and/or provide supplemental lighting. Observe the winter light in your home and move plants to the brightest spots, and closer to windows. Just make sure plants are not right up against freezing-cold windows. Consider adding a grow-light if there isn’t sufficient natural light. 

Water when the plant needs it, not on a fixed schedule. Use a meter or push your finger an inch or two into the soil, and only water when the top layer is dry. When you water houseplants, water them thoroughly. Water should freely drain out of the bottoms of the pots. Once the excess water drains into a saucer, discard the water and replace the saucer beneath the pot.  

Check the top and bottom of leaves weekly for insect activity. Look for sticky substances (mealy bugs or scale), small webs (usually spider mites). Fungus gnats can also be a problem. If found, treat with appropriate products such as Spinosad or Neem Oil.  

Dust and grease often accumulate on the leaves of houseplants can slow plant growth. Cleaning houseplants improves their appearance and may help control insects and mites.  

Finally, avoid over fertilizing. Use a product such as Foxfarm Grow Big 6-4-4 or Schultz 10-15-10 every couple of weeks. Once a month, feed with SuperThrive with Kelp to provide the nutrients your plants need.    

  

 

 

How to start and care for an indoor Herb Garden

  
Is it your intention to eat fresher, get healthier in the New Year? An herb garden is a great way to get started toward achieving your goals. There's nothing like harvesting your own herbs fresh from your indoor herb garden. Potted herbs are a great addition to your kitchen during the winter. An indoor herb garden allows you to enjoy the flavor, fragrance, as well as the assurance of quality cooking ingredients year-round.     

 

Growing herbs indoors this winter, you’ll be rewarded with fresh cooking herbs you grow and harvest yourself. Here are some tips to help you grow healthy herbs indoors.  

While temperature and humidity are important, the key factor to growing herbs indoors is light.  Herbs growing indoors need at least six hours of sunlight to thrive. You can grow a wide variety of herbs indoors anywhere they will get at least six hours of sunlight, such as a south or west facing window.  Your other option is to supplement your natural lighting with additional lighting from a fluorescent fixture, LED or an incandescent bulb.

Grow bulbs are available which will fit a standard socket such as a floor lamp or desk lamp. Clamp on light fixtures are also available. This makes it easier to achieve the light you need to grow the herbs indoors successfully. Placing your herb plants in the kitchen or bathroom under grow lights helps ensure they will stay warm and humid naturally.  

  

Providing the right amount of sunlight and the correct ambient temperature encourages the strong, healthy growth of your herb plants and the best tasting foliage.   

 

You can grow herbs from seeds or choose quality herb starter plants. Popular herbs which do well inside are cilantro, oregano, parsley, basil, sage, rosemary, and thyme, but most herbs lend themselves very well to be grown in pots and containers indoors, if there is sufficient light.  

You have many options when it comes to selecting a container for your herb plants. The main consideration is to choose a pot that’s the correct size for the plants you are growing and that it drains. Over-potting herb plants or any plant will lead to root problems. 

Containers made from clay are porous, which means they allow air and moisture to move through the sides of the pot. This helps keep the roots of your plants healthy by preventing overwatering and promoting good air circulation.   

Another option is to combine herbs into a single container. There are many attractive clay or ceramic container options to plant herbs in, just be sure the container has good drainage.   

 

Along with the right sized pot, select a potting soil that drains well, such as Flower Bin Potting Soil.  

Plan to feed your herbs every two weeks with well-balanced fertilizer such as a granular True Organic 4-4-6 or water-soluble 3-2-3. The Organic Material Review Institute – OMRI logo on the package assures you the fertilizer is indeed certified organic.  

Apart from cooking, herbs make great house plants. Pineapple Sage for example, has a pleasant fragrance and will flower.  

 

Growing herbs indoors is a great way to continue gardening right through the dreariest, coldest days of the season. By growing your own culinary herbs indoors, you will be rewarded with fresh cooking herbs you grow and harvest yourself, as well as the color and aroma herbs bring to the table.