Preparing Your Houseplants For Winter

Summer is coming to a close with fall moving in fast. Which means your plants might start to switch gears and go into winter mode. This is why every plant parent needs to know how to prepare houseplants for the winter.

Even though your houseplants are inside, the seasons still affect your plants natural instincts.

Certain plants can go completely dormant in the fall/winter. That means your plant that has been popping out leaves left and right all summer, might all of a sudden slow way down producing little to no leaves.

Below I’m going to let you know the steps you need to take to prepare your houseplants for winter, and what you may need to get started.

Increase Lighting For Houseplants In Winter

Depending on where you live in the world, the winter can be pretty dark.

Where I am in Florida, it’s not always as sunny as you think all year round. We get the shorter sun lit days which means it gets darker earlier.

This is thanks to a combination of daylight savings time and the tilt of the earth around this time. Your plants wont get as much sun as they did in the summer. And that might make your plants go…

“Uh…”

One way you could increase more light is to move the plants closer to a sunny window. Some of my plants that live by a window get moved almost on the windowsill to help with lighting. You can also move the plant to another window or area with more lighting.

Also, cleaning off the leaves of dust and debris will allow for maximum light absorption.

Just make sure if you put the plants closer to the sunlight that you keep a close eye on them for the first week or two to make sure they aren’t getting burned.

Also, make sure you remember to move them back in the spring!

If sunlight is not a great option, you can always invest in a good grow light. Grow lights come in all types of varieties like bulbs or strips. When purchasing a new grow light, make sure that the light is full spectrum, which is just a fancy way to say ‘mimics the sun’.

Watching The Temperature And Humidity Levels

With the sun not beating down on us all day, it will start to get cooler outside. Plants are happiest at certain temperatures, and will get upset or could die if it gets below that. In your home make sure that your plants are warm enough.

Making sure that if you do move plants closer to a window that the window isn’t going to be drafty. Sealing off your windows in the winter wont just be for your plants sake, but also your heating bill.

If you have tropical plants you may want to invest in a heating pad for plants to make sure they stay nice and toasty.

Most plants like the temperature to be around 70-90 degrees. 

With the temperature dropping, your home humidity will drop as well. Winter air is pretty dry, and your plants will need you to increase the humidity.

So, break out those humidifiers!

Running humidifiers for the majority of the day will make your plants happy. I’d recommend running them everyday for at least 6-8 hours a day.

Most plants like the humidity levels to be around 40-60%.

Again, with tropical plants, if a humidifier isn’t giving them enough humidity, you might want to make shift a terrarium temporarily or buy one.

Now Is The Time To Get Your Houseplants In Line For Winter

If your plant is starting to out grow its pot, maybe think about replanting it before the winter really hits. Wintertime is not the best time to re-pot your plants.

Why?

Plant growth seems to screech to a halt and your plants wont be able to get cozy in its new pot and could cause shock to the plant. So, hold off potting until spring.

Late summer to early fall you can also start pruning back some plants that got a little too wild over the summer.

Since plants aren’t growing as rapid as they did in the spring and summer, they are going to retain some water in the soil, which means you don’t have to water as much!

Fertilizing is not necessary in the winter as well, so late summer to early fall I’d give them their last dose of Fertilizer until spring.

Creating A Winter Houseplant Care Routine

Still keep up with what you were doing in the summer, just with upping the humidifiers and lighting, and no fertilizers.

I routinely check on my plants every Sunday to make sure they are watered and pest free. I would still maintain that practice if you already have a routine in place, but you will find that your plants wont need as much care in the winter.

Once you get (somewhat of) a schedule down for the winter, its actually easier, in my opinion than in the spring and summer, since they aren’t as needy.

Are there any tips that I may have left out?

Check out my video below to see how I prepare my houseplants for winter.