Shelter indoor plants, how to proceed?

BRINGING PLANTS INTO THE HOUSE

After having successfully experimented with the cultivation of houseplants outside the home during the summer, the time is approaching to hospitalize them again inside, before the rigors of winter. If you missed irrigation work in Dubai, you can retrieve it from HERE and save it to see it again at the end of winter.

Personally, this year I will try to leave them out for as long as possible, also in order to personally test their ability to tolerate low temperatures. I have already talked about the Alocasia macrorrhiza of the abandoned restaurant near my house, which remained outside with lows of 5-6 ° C until the end of November. Last year I simply sheltered the Ceropegia from the frost, keeping it outside under the porch and pushing it to a minimum of 2-3 ° C at night: it has not grown but it is not even dead and if you see it now it is the most lively plant and luxuriant of the world! Without having to evaluate, plant by plant, their resistance to cold, it is good to set general rules that will help us in this key step.

Some tips I can give concern 4 fundamental aspects: temperatures, light, water and parasites.

TEMPERATURE

The plants we use indoors are tropical plants, with an optimal temperature range indicated on average around 18-25 ° C. I am not always too convinced of this indication and neither is my Alocasia 'Portodora' which practically exploded at 30-35 ° C in July (in partial shade). However, it is known that they tolerate temperatures above 30 ° C. Always ideally, the night lows foresee excursions of about 10 ° C with respect to daytime temperatures.

BASIC STEPS

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Plan your return (even a little at a time) before temperatures drop below 10 ° C minimum (usually happens at night): keep an eye on the weather forecast!

Having to make a choice: I shelter the younger plants first, those with more tender leaves or those that I know are less tolerant (I shelter the Sansevieria Orchid first). For succulents, for example, in many cases it is not necessary to bring them back into the home: they can be kept in a cold greenhouse or on the porch, perhaps by creating a tent with a plastic sheet or using a mobile locker; the important thing is to remember that they fear humidity much more than dry cold.

Graduality always increases resistance, beware of sudden collapses in both directions (no more than 5-10 ° C as a difference)

THE LAST DAYS OUT

Wanting to extend the stay of plants outdoors is not a bad idea. I remain firmly convinced that nothing makes them feel as good as direct light and running air. For those who want to make the outdoor stop to the extreme, I can recommend some tips:

Administering Algatron induces greater resistance to cold (even when given via the leaves).

Position the plants so that they receive as much light as possible, even direct. A small portico facing south, sheltered and bright would be perfect.

A position should be chosen that protects the plants from the cold wind that may be present in the area of ​​interest.

A locker with wheels is the solution I adopt, since I don't have a south porch: I keep it underneath during the night and expose it to the south during the day, perhaps by opening the cover.

On some plants (I always speak of the daredevils who will want to push them to the extreme or who are in slightly milder areas) it is possible to mitigate the cold with TNT (breathable) or with transparent plastic sheet hoods (in this case I recommend opening in the warmer hours to avoid stagnation of air and humidity, often the cause of cryptogams).

BACK INSIDE

Most likely, however, at some point, the cold will take over and we will be forced to bring the plants back into the house. Incidentally, as I always say: Italy is varied in terms of climate and these indications must be read and compared according to where we are. On average I tend to talk about continental climates, a good middle ground between the alpine climate of the northern mountainous and Apennine regions and the Mediterranean climates of the central south, especially coastal, or in some cases lacustrine in the north.

What conditions must the plants find when they return to our homes? The guiding principle is still that of the smallest possible differential.

If you have left them outside with temperatures of 8 ° C at night, do not throw them out of the blue at 28 ° C, pass them a little at a time from cooler to warmer areas of the house. Normally the rooms always have temperatures between about 16-25 ° C which are optimal.

We avoid locations in the house affected by cold currents or too close to heat sources.

Better that the leaves are a few centimeters away from the glass, poorly insulating materials that cool down a lot during the night. There are areas of the country where the windows freeze and in these cases it is a good idea to create an air cushion with a heavy curtain.

EXPOSURE

It is not the temperature the

the most difficult factor to manage, but the light. Except for the use of grow light, this parameter is beyond our control. In their areas of origin, these plants enjoy a good amount of natural light throughout the year, both in terms of hours and intensity.

Both of these factors already from the end of August - beginning of September tend to change in our latitudes. Exposure is the most critical issue in growing indoor plants during the winter: put your heart in peace, it will torment us and cause us a thousand nuisances, especially yellowing and leaf necrosis, stunted growth and loss of leaves, general conditions of the plants well far from the summer vigor. Let's grit our teeth and try to ferry them as best we can towards the future spring: they will not always be beautiful for the race but they will not even die if we follow a few simple tricks. Here are some tips to help plants cope with changes in light levels.

GENERAL RULE: we abandon the concept of 'screened light': all plants prescribed as such should be positioned as far as possible in full and direct light until March-May (depending on latitudes and climatic conditions). That's why I try to keep them outside as much as possible.

As for the temperature: we make sure that they do not drastically pass from good external exposure to the darkness of the most ambushed corner of the house.

The amount of light that reaches the windows of our homes drops by a good 50% in winter: the sun is lower and radiates for fewer hours / day. The ideal is to move all the plants (or at least the most demanding in terms of light) to windows facing south and west.

In general: we bring the plants as close as possible to the windows, preferring the most exposed.

Clean windows allow for greater light filtration.

Clean leaves are able to intercept more light with greater efficiency of the photosynthesis processes and consequently a better state of health of the plant: keeping the leaves clean with a damp cloth helps; some small plants can also be showered.

I don't use them much but grow lights can help in particularly desperate situations.

PARASITES

I know that many of us are held back by the 'parasites' issue of bringing plants outside. In my experience it is not that I have found great differences, perhaps outside it is easier for a plant to meet a louse but this risk is amply compensated by the healthier conditions of the external environment. However, it is good to avoid bringing parasites into the house from the outside when we shelter the plants before winter. Here's how I advise you to act (you can also adopt more practical variants of mine, I'm interested in conveying the sense of the procedure).

A couple of weeks before the expected drop in temperatures below the guard thresholds, we inspect the plants in search of parasites: we remove everything that seems suspicious to us, we cleanse the dry or rotting vegetation and in case of evident attacks we intervene with the appropriate products ( insecticides, acaricides, fungicides).

In the event that there is nothing particularly suspicious, we give it a pass with soft soap (10 ml / liter, passed three times at a distance of 10 days, so part of the treatment we will do it with the plants already in the house). It is a natural barrier that helps us prevent last-minute attacks.

After 5 days I also give birth with the preventive antifungal treatment with natural barrier kyphoblock, then I start at 5 days with respect to soft soap and I do 3 sprinkles 10 days apart.

After 10 days we inspect the plants again and check that everything is ok.

This is a great time to spend with the plants, if you have taken some pictures of them before taking them outside, you will be able to observe the amazing growth that has taken place.

WATER AND HUMIDITY

While they are outside, I love to wet them with rubber and shower head, abundantly aware of using excellent substrates that always drain perfectly (never heard of people who have stagnation problems using professional substrates). The soil always dries quickly on the outside but this is not the case at the turn of the hot season: it will dry out more and more slowly, both due to less activity (and use of water) of the plant, and due to less transpiration of the leaves and evaporation from the ground. So, in general, we will have to change our habits and bathe less and less frequently.

The most common problem that houseplants suffer from in winter is excess water. The soil must dry out almost completely before watering, this applies to almost all plants (with the exception of Banani, Pachira, Ferns and Citrus, among others). If we don't use high quality soil we will have a hard time getting it to dry.

When we do the 'finger test' we make sure we go deeper: we might as well have

a dry surface but the roots develop above all lower and it is there that we must check for the presence of humidity.

Raising the pots before and after wetting is a great way to learn how to evaluate when they are dry, based on their weight.

Dry air is the enemy of many tropical plants native to wetlands: in addition to some welcome vaporization, remember that dry environments dry the pots first.

Never leave water in the saucer after wetting.

FERTILIZER

Here I have my idea, different from what I often read on the web: I do not stop fertilizing in winter on tropical evergreen plants. The reason is that I always see them growing (slowed down) and I notice the production of new leaves and tissues. My advice is to thin out (perhaps by halving the doses more than the administrations) but do not suspend.

In the saddest moments of winter, alongside the fertilizer there is also a bio-gold type biostimulant.

LATEST MEASURES

Last minute repotting: the right time to repot most houseplants is during periods of vegetative growth, in spring and summer. If in October you notice that a plant needs repotting, please postpone the spring.

Tropical plants that lose all their leaves: some plants can be induced to a state of quiescence by changes in light / temperature. I think of Ficus and their habit of defoliating a lot during the winter, often abruptly. Some Alocasia can spend short periods in dormancy, losing their leaves and revegetating when the rhizome feels the right conditions again. In the case of total loss of vegetation, it is advisable to stop the wetting until the reappearance of the new shoots.

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