Fall & Winter Houseplant Care Essentials
Houseplant care is different in fall and winter.
Not tricky, just different.
So when fall comes, don’t panic, (like I used to!), if you notice your indoor plants turning their leaves into multiple shades of yellow, or even worse, dropping them to the ground!
It is quite normal, even for indoor plants, to experience the change of seasons.
Just because the plants are indoors, it doesn’t mean that they don’t experience the seasons changes.
Have you noticed the new blooms and leaves popping out on many of your houseplants in spring? The same way your plants experience spring indoors, they experience fall.
Less light and cooler temperatures in the fall, trigger many plants to go dormant for the winter.
Even when you maintain your home temperature the same, by balancing air conditioning in summer and heating in winter, houseplants have different needs in different seasons.
Let’s dwell a bit on the temperature and humidity aspects of our homes;
Our home temperature is pretty much the same throughout the year, however, the humidity levels change drastically in spring and fall. Why?
Both forced air heating in winter, and air conditioning in summer, keep the indoors humidity levels quite low. In our home we go from a minimum of 35%, to a max of 45% humidity levels in both seasons.
But when spring and fall come, we shut off both heating and air conditioning, and we see a drastically increased level of indoor humidity, even though the indoor temperature remains the same.
What do I notice in spring and fall?
In spring, even though the temperature is the same, and the humidity is higher, plants still want the same amount of water that they wanted in winter when the conditions where dry. This is because the days are longer, with more sunlight exposure, and because at this time, our plants are working harder at producing new leaves, blooming new flowers, or simply growing bigger after a long winter in dormancy.
However, in the fall, even though the temperature indoors is the same, and the humidity is higher, plants need less water because days are much shorter. The decrease in sunlight, triggers plants into dormancy. They slow down, and they require less water. They need less water because they are not growing anymore, and because the higher humidity levels don’t dry up the soil as fast.
You’ll notice you will need more water in winter, as soon as you crank the heat into your home.
When the fall comes, the biggest impact on our houseplants is definitely the change in light, more so than the change in outdoor temperatures.
Here are 10 easy steps to care for your houseplants in fall and winter, no matter the temperature, no matter the humidity.
1. bring your houseplants back inside
The first step in houseplant care is to bring them inside if you’ve kept them outdoors for the summer.
If you haven’t, skip to Step 2.
It is time to bring your plants indoors when outdoor’s temperatures reach the 55F / 13C mark.
Bringing plants indoors for the winter should not be as simple as just moving them inside.
I mean you could, but it’s risky business.
First of all, your plants need to be slowly acclimatized to your indoor conditions with less natural light and higher temperatures. This change alone, can be a big shock for a plant.
Second, you want to make sure you’re not bringing in any pests from your yard…Do you know how many bugs can easily be transferred from these outdoor summer plants to your indoors? A lot! I know from experience! 😩
I strongly recommend you read and follow this simple 5 Steps Process to Safely Bringing Plants Indoors For The Winter.
Outdoor debugging process before bringing plants indoors for the winter.
2. slow down watering
As mentioned before, shorter days and less light exposure in the fall, trigger plants into slowing their growth process, and in many cases, into dormancy.
Plants need less water during the fall, and depending on the humidity levels of your home, even in winter.
It is important to either diminish the amount of water you give to your plants, or decrease the frequency of your waterings.
Overwatering plants is a big risk in the fall, as it will promote roots rot.
A decaying Anthurium leaf.
3. provide more natural light
As the days get shorter, and natural light exposure decreases inside your home, it is a good idea to move your indoor plants to brighter areas of your home.
East and South facing windows are ideal for those plants that require a lot of light, and can afford some hours of direct sunlight, like succulents, cacti and Fiddle Leaf Figs.
North facing windows are ideal for tropical plants like Philodendrons, Hoyas, Calatheas and Marantas.
As you can see, even my Jade plant, placed on a sunny South-East facing window, is experiencing the change in season, and is dropping a bunch of leaves.
4. wean off fertilizer
Fertilizing is one of the houseplant care staples.
However, fall is not the right time to start fertilizing your plants.
I fertilize my plants with a common liquid fertilizer every time I water them, from spring to fall.
When fall comes, it is time to slow down the dosage, to eventually stop in winter.
I slowly diminish the amount of fertilizer I provide with every watering, rather than going cold turkey, and stop using fertilizer all of a sudden.
My Monstera is feeling the season’s changes and is turning one of its oldest leaves to yellow.
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5. avoid any drafts
When placing your plants close to windows, doors, or even on top of window sills, make sure there are no drafts near by.
Drafts, whether hot or cold, are bad for plants.
Avoid placing your plants, especially the ones susceptible to cold temperatures, near doors.
Avoid window sills that are on top of any source of heat, like radiators or heaters. The excessive hot air will quickly dry up your plant’s soil, and will keep its surrounding air too dry.
My Pilea is dropping leaves too this fall! (Don’t be fooled by the register on the floor next to it! It’s not a vent blowing air into my precious Pilea. It’s just an air return register.)
6. avoid repotting, unless necessary
Spring is the perfect time to repot plants, summer is good too.
Fall, not so great!
However, if your plants, (just like mine), have gone through a growth spurt during the summer and they are now very cramped inside their pots, it’s best you take care of it right away. Don’t wait too long.
If you have to repot your overly grown plants, make sure you use the proper soil for their species, and that you provide good drainage.
No matter the soil I use, I always add a bit of perlite in my soil to make sure water is draining properly through the roots.
Another critical aspect to consider when repotting your plants, is that your new pots have drainage holes. If not, there are strategies to provide proper drainage to your plants.
I recommend your read my article on How to Plant in Pots Without Drainage Holes.
Drainage is critical to roots health. Without proper drainage, your plants can get waterlogged, suffer from roots rot, and eventually die.
This Peace Lily clearly needed a new pot! It could have not waited for spring to come in 6 months to be repotted!
Make sure you provide enough drainage to all your plants, even the ones in pots without drainage holes.
7. provide high humidity levels
Some plants need more humidity than others, and require extra help to thrive.
Plants such as Tropicals, Ferns, Pileas, Fiddle Leaf Figs, and many others, require high levels of humidity to thrive inside our dry homes.
There are a few strategies you can adopt to increase the humidity levels around your houseplants. You can choose one, or combine a few of them together.
- Using a plants humidifier. There are several products available on the market, but since I haven’t used one myself, I can’t really recommend a specific product..
- Misting your plants. I mist all those plants that thrive on high humidity, such as Marantas, Monsteras, Alocasias, Stromanthes, Calatheas, Fiddle Leaf Figs, Strelitzias, Ferns, Pileas, Peace Lilies and my Norfolfk Pine.
- Grouping your plants by species. Grouping plants together will help them raise the surrounding air humidity levels.
- Using a tray filled with pebbles and water. Filling a saucer with small pebbles and adding water so that it barely reaches the top surface of the pebbles, helps maintaining higher levels of humidity around the plant. However, it is important that the bottom of the pot is not submerged in water with the roots stagnating in it. This will cause roots rot in the long term.
I haven’t gone to the extent of buying a plant humidifier. It’s easy for me to pick and choose the other strategies based on plants species and trial and error.
In some cases, I use a pebble tray and I also mist. In some case, I simply mist without the pebble tray.
I want to point out that since I water all the tropical plants that are susceptible to leaf crisping with distilled water, I also mist them all with distilled water, (including my Air Plants).
I mist my Monstera with distilled water twice a week.
I keep trays filled with pebbles and a bit of water under all my ferns.
8. prune off dead leaves and stems
Let’s not get confused here.
Pruning off dead leaves and stems, does not mean pruning your plants!
In-fact, fall is not a good time to prune plants. Pruning off dead leaves and stems, simply means snipping off the yellow, or dead leaves still hanging from their branches and stems.
Some plants, especially the trailing ones with multiple long and thin stems, may have the odd dried out stem that can be cut-off.
This is not a purely aesthetic process to make your plants look great, (yes, that too!).
It is important to remove those dead leaves and debris that can accumulate in the pot, because decaying leaves can become an excellent source of food for unwanted bugs.
Those yellow leaves on my Marble Queen Pothos need to be snipped off!
9. clean dusty leaves
Cleaning leaves is a good houseplant care habit.
Why?
Shiny, clean leaves are not only beautiful to look at, enhancing the look of your plants.
Shiny leaves help keeping your plants healthy.
Dust on leaves encourages disease and prevents houseplants from absorbing sunlight effectively, especially during the winter months, when access to sunlight is reduced.
There are different ways and products to clean your houseplants leaves; from showering them, to spraying them with special products.
They all have their pros and cons.
I don’t shower my plants as our tap water is very hard, and it would leave calcium stains on all the leaves. I don’t use a commercial spray to polish them either, as I am trying to avoid harmful ingredients.
I use a natural home made mix I described in my article on How to Clean Houseplants Leaves.
Shiny Stromanthe leaf after a good dusting session!
10. watch out for pests
Finally, another important aspect you should always been on the lookout for is pest control!
Indoor plants can host several different types of pests.
The most common houseplants pests are;
- Aphids
- Spider Mites
- Whiteflies
- Mealy Bugs
- Scales
Some attack the leaves of your plants, others are deep into the roots and soil.
Once you spot a pest on your plant, you should isolate the affected plant from all others in order to avoid a mass infestation of all your indoor plants.
Depending on your plant’s pest, there are different ways and products to deal with the issue.
I use Safer’s Insecticidal Soap that takes care of the most common houseplants pests. There are several products available on the market, and if you do your own research, you can even concoct one yourself!
I often use a combination of 1 part Hydrogen Peroxide to 4 parts water to water my plants when affected by fruit flies or gnats larvae. It seems to be very effective and it can be used for several waterings without harm.
This beautiful Pinstripe Calathea has been attacked by Spider Mites.
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