Winter Care for Plants in Colorado
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| Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash One of the questions I receive from people most often lately is, "how do I care for my plants in the winter?" I decided that this was a good first topic to get the blog started! The information I am going to share with you here is based on my personal experience and research over the years. Why is plant care more difficult in the fall/winter months?I am not going to fully disagree with the fact that taking care of plants in the winter can be a bit challenging, but I am going to say that I think the problem is often times blown out of proportion. The main challenges in Colorado come from shorter days which leads to less light, colder temperatures, and even less humidity than we normally deal with. First, it is important to address the topic of dormancy in house plants. In simple terms think of dormancy in house plants as being equivalent to an animal's hibernation season. This is a time of rest for your plants. Plants will sense that it is time to go into some level of dormancy as the days become shorter and the light levels decrease accordingly. Your plants will start going into dormancy right around the last couple weeks of September and will continue to rest until the first couple weeks of March. It is my experience that it is around this time that people tend to become discouraged, disappointed, and frustrated with their plants. The reason? As plants go into some degree of dormancy they sometimes tend to become less than Instagram worthy. During dormancy plants can lose leaves, turn yellow, and their growth can SOMETIMES completely stop, but behind the scenes their roots are alive and thriving. I think it is super important to realize and accept that these are natural processes, and that more often than not the situation is not quite so dire. Note that above I said that growth SOMETIMES stops altogether, in my experience plants continue to grow to some degree year round. In Colorado we are fortunate to enjoy plenty of sunshine and quite a few warm days in the fall and winter, which makes this whole plant thing much easier. Of course, there are some exceptions i.e Alocasia, Colocasia, blooming plants, etc, those are a topic worthy of their own post at a later date. With that being said, I want to put it out there that my plant care really does not change much in the fall and winter. Below I will describe many simple things that can be done to address these problems in ways that can make keeping your plant collection happy over the colder months. Light: (Photo by Nik Albert on Unsplash) As summer turns into fall and then winter you will find, of course, that your plants will be getting less light. The light near windows can drop by as much as 40-50% in the later half of the year. However, we are fortunate to live in a place that boasts 300+ sunny days! First thing you can do to help your plants deal with lowered natural light levels is to relocate them, even if just during the fall and winter. Your great plant migration will mostly involve your plants situated in eastern and northern exposure. Relocate these plants to southern or western exposure. Sunlight during these months will tend to be gentler so plants are able to withstand some direct sun during these months. Other simple things that you can and should do to ensure your plants thrive during the fall and winter are:
***A side note on cleaning plants*** I don't recommend the use of any leaf shine products, nor encourage you to use any oily substances to clean your plants. Any build up on your plant can have a negative effect by preventing it from photosynthesizing properly. It is also important to note that some plants don't react well to having their leaves wet in particular any plant that has fuzzy leaves or highly textured ones. Those fuzzy leaves are covered in something called trichomes. Trichomes serve many different roles in protecting your plants, and you should never get plants with these types of leaves wet as it can cause staining, and makes your plant more susceptible to disease. The best way to clean the rest of your smooth leaved plants is with a dry microfiber cloth.
Temperature and Humidity: Your indoor tropical plants come for the most part from extremely humid environments. Low humidity in Colorado is going to be a year-round issue, by the time fall and winter roll around it shouldn't really catch you by surprise. In the fall and winter the humidity in your home can dip down to 5-15%, while your plants would prefer to live in an environment where the humidity is above 40% minimum. The most common signs of low ambient humidity in your plants are brown leaf tips and crispiness around the edges of your plant. Another sign is the sudden outbreak of spider mites. Here are some things that you can do to give your plants a leg (leaf?) up in this dry place we call home. The simplest is to bunch your plants together. Plants release a small amount water vapor as part of the respiration/photosynthesis process, so bunching your plants together is a smart way to create a small greenhouse effect around them and not let that humidity go to waste. I highly recommend that you get a humidifier. It is an investment that will pay dividends when it comes to the overall health and appearance of your plants, plus it is good for your health as well!  (Sample pebble tray set up. Pic @houseplantguru) If you don't want to or can't invest in a humidifier, the second best option for your plants are pebble trays. Pebble trays are a cheap alternative to a humidifier, however, I have found that they do work best in conjunction with a humidifier. I often recommend both being used together because as soon as you turn the heater on when it gets cold the humidity is going to drop even lower. The effect of just a humidifier or just pebble trays is essentially negated as soon as the heater gets turned on. The constant evaporation of water beneath your plants will serve the same purpose as a SMALL humidifier being placed next to your plant. It is super important that the bottom drainage hole of your pot is not sitting directly on top of water! At the end of the day, a pebble tray is better than nothing. In last place comes misting. I am strongly against using misting as your only way of bringing additional humidity to your plants. Bottom line, it does almost nothing. When it comes to the topic of temperature there are just a few things to keep in mind to keep your plants happy over the colder months. Be mindful that tropical plants prefer temperatures between 65-80 degrees Fahrenheit. There is some wiggle room, but at any temperature below 50 degrees Fahrenheit you start to risk damaging your plants, on the other hand too high of a temperature is also harmful. Keep in mind that the warmer you keep your environment the faster the soil in your plants will dry out, and the low humidity issue will become more apparent.
Winter Watering and Fertilizing: (Photo by Severin Candrian on Unsplash) Winter watering in Colorado and other places that have mild climates during the fall and winter is not going to change much. This is usually something that confuses a lot of people, and it goes back to realizing/noticing that your plants are still actively growing during the fall and winter months. It is because of this reason that you really don't need to change your watering habits much. There is a lot of advice out there that will say that you need to cut your watering way back or stop it altogether for some plants. This type of advice sometimes comes from people in places that have much harsher climates. Here in Colorado we still experience plenty of plant growth during the "dormant season" and because of this it is only necessary to slightly modify your watering behaviors. At most you will be looking to extend your watering schedule by a few days or reduce the quantity of water that you use and keep the same frequency. Your water loving plants (Calatheas, Ferns, Lilies, etc) will continue to require even moist soil constantly even in the fall and winter. For these plants you might even find that if you don't up the humidity in your environment they may dry faster due to the heater being turned on. If you have worked on increasing the humidity in your home, you may find that your plants don't watering as frequently. Regardless of the season it is important to get in the habit of checking the moisture level in the soil of your plants before you water them. The watering requirements for different genus of plants can vary widely so it is important to research plants individually to determine the proper watering schedule. When researching plants it is important to make sure that the advice is pertinent to your hardiness zone (Denver is Zone 5b, 6a), the way we care for plants in Colorado in the winter is going to vary tremendously from the way they are wintered in Maine for example. My take on fertilizing in the fall and winter can be summed up as "if it is still growing then I am still fertilizing". During these months I advice to reduce the concentration of the fertilizer to around 1/4th of the recommended strength on the packaging. During the growing season I recommend 1/2 strength, I tend to never fertilize at full strength. I hope these tips help you winter your plants with less stress and anxiety. Just keep in mind that we live in pretty mild fall and winter climate. We are fortunate that this allows us to keep our plants happy with less work over the "dormant" season. The issue I see most people run into in the shop is crispiness and pests from dry air. As I mentioned before this is something that should not be a huge shock since we have dry conditions year round. Do yourself a favor and try to get a humidifier, your plants will thank you for it! Next time I will be discussing grow lights and their proper use for houseplants, stay tuned for that! If there are any other topics you'd like to see covered send me a message on Instagram @theplantroomdenver. Until next time! -Victor |
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