Vacation is officially over for your houseplants! Now that cooler weather has arrived, it’s time to move them back indoors. Once nighttime temperatures dip to 45 degrees or lower, your tender tropical houseplants need to stop sunbathing and seek refuge indoors.
Your indoor garden inhabitants may protest at returning to the confines of your home after reveling in the freedom of summer vacation, but believe me, it’s a lot better than frostbite. And you can tell your houseplants I said that.
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Inspect and treat each houseplant
Wash your plants off outdoors with water and then spray them with an organic insecticidal soap and let it dry. This removes and destroys insect pests and their eggs. Bringing in unwanted hitchhikers now can make your fall and winter indoor gardening experience exhausting in terms of pest management.
Move houseplants inside into a bright area
A location with a southern or eastern exposure is ideal. Another option is under full-spectrum lighting, which simulates the daylight your houseplants just left.
Provide humidity
After frolicking in the equivalent of the tropics outside compared to your home, houseplants need moist air. Mist the plants with a fine mist a few times a day, if possible.
Setting houseplants on humidity trays also works well. See our video for how to make a humidity tray. Grouping houseplants together boosts humidity, too. Your plants will humidify each other as they bemoan the fact that summer is over.
Warning signs that plants aren’t getting enough humidity include dry leaf tips and leaf drop. Do keep in mind, though, that some leaf drop (protests about summer being over) is natural.
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Water sparingly
Houseplants respond to being overwatered by succumbing to root rot. As the days shorten and the nights get cooler—even in your home—your houseplants will drink less. Water most indoor plants only when the top two to three inches of soil has dried out.
Hold off on fertilizing
Wait a month before feeding your houseplants. At that point they will have acclimated to their winter “digs” and be hungry. Feed with an organic houseplant fertilizer once a month.
Promise your houseplants another swell vacation next year
When your indoor garden dwellers are looking a little glum in the middle of winter, it’ll do wonders if you remind them of their summer fun. Let them know that it’s just a matter of time before you’ll be transitioning them outdoors again. And looking for a houseplant sitter so you can go on your own vacation.