Winter houseplant care

 Winter houseplant care: Balanced conditions

A friend of this column interacted with a sad house plant story, which points to the importance of knowing all aspects of house plant care.

In winter, most plants are dormant and should be treated accordingly. That is, pay equal attention to every aspect of your indoor plants, including how little water they hold inactive, and how those features affect each other. How many of us have left our favorite plant (in my case, this is old, reliable rosemary) on the south-facing window only to wither due to temperature fluctuations and lack of moisture during the cold season?

Light, light water, optimum humidity, and temperature

Take something with you, and your houseplant will be affected. I, like my rosemary, sometimes exaggerate one of the plant’s needs while ignoring others. Some tools can help us monitor things like humidity that we can ignore. The ability to observe and observe is an important horticultural skill.

Available in four colors! Scheurich Bordy is an attractive and effective automatic plant irrigation. Are you going on vacation? Is it disgraceful to water poorly? Simply fill with water and ensure that your plant is fully watered for up to four days.

It takes us to our friend. At the Santa Fe, New Mexico farmer’s market, at the monument to their high country life he bought a small pot of meat for his love. An island in the Salish Sea of Washington State escaped from a long trip to their new home and the kitchen overlooks the south-facing window above the sink, where moisture grew from washing dishes without water.

But someone noticed that its well-drained gravel soil was dry. We will not say that the person, who, as taught to do in the summer, watered it well, and then immediately strain it into a saucer filled with water. It sat for more than a day but was damaged. At first as a sign of root rot, the leaves began to die from the outside. When it seemed like it was in the final stages, the spiders jumped to finish the corpse.

Our friend, the killer, er, who is always a winner in intelligent plant care, said he knew a principle of plant care, but not when it was used. Little did she know that winter is the time when plants are allowed to dry completely to protect their roots. Little did she know that succulents are a special case. She did what she knew. She didn’t know what she didn’t know, so she didn’t do it. Or did not do it.

We have previously written about winter houseplant care. But we are not emphasizing how important it is to consider how changing one feature - humidity, light, temperature - can affect others.

Reducing water during the slow, dormant, winter months is important for almost all houseplants (except indoor citrus, say a pot of orange or lemon; they should be moist). But plants still need moisture. And they need it constantly.

Winter can be devastating with the moisture needed for plant health. Forced air furnaces and other heating systems will squeeze all the moisture out of your home, as proven by our own dry skin. Routine remedies - stone-filled trays filled with water nearby, misters - will not help so much. Having a plant near the kitchen sink can be helpful. Everyone knows someone who brings ferns in their pots in the bathroom while they bathe.

For constant humidity, we need a humidifier. Our friend on the now foggy Pacific coast does not need it — although he says he does it when the furnace is running a lot, most of us do — but if we use one in the plains and mountain west, southwest, midwest, and winter months, even places in the south with full summer can help our plants Will be.

A sunny, southern exposure will create higher temperatures during the day and steeper temperature fluctuations at night. That, and I did it because there was no moisture in the sunroom where my rosemary was.

Now we know what we know. Don’t just consider light for your houseplants in the winter. Sometimes it’s better to sacrifice a little light - or better yet, control it! - To get the right balance of humidity, light, and temperature.

Do not forget to catch more water. Topsoil Do not just stick your finger on the nail, see if it is dry. Lift the plant, pot, and all and give good weight to your hands. Once the soil is completely dry it will be much lighter. Then give some water. Letting the root ball dry completely helps to stop one of the biggest problems of winter: root rot. If my friend's friend knew.