End of summering. Move your houseplants back home
Summer is ending, and with it the period when some popular houseplants could be moved outdoors for the season. Outside, they safely gathered life-giving energy through fresh air, natural sunlight and gentle summer rain. During September, however, it is time to move houseplants back indoors. How can you do this so that they survive the return to the interior in the best possible condition?
Well-known houseplants that particularly benefit from the above-mentioned summer outdoors include cacti and succulents. Ficus, hibiscus, spider plants and yuccas are also among them. If you left them outside over the summer, they will have gained plenty of new strength, which will allow them to bring you even more joy during the long winter months. However, if you do not manage to move them home sensitively before the heating season begins, an unhappy scenario may occur in which the leaves start to lose colour or even fall off. And as is well known, weakened plants also become much more susceptible to attack by various pests (see separate article: How to deal with pests?).
However, returning indoors is not a simple matter for a plant. On the contrary, it can be quite a shock. A different temperature, light intensity or air humidity – these are all factors, or rather significant changes, that are often forgotten, despite the fact that some houseplant species are highly sensitive to the changes mentioned. That is precisely why we should make this “move” easier for houseplants. The best approach is to do it gradually (see below).
- First of all, all houseplants that have been outside over the summer need to be thoroughly checked and any pests identified. If one of your plants is infested, you will usually notice it by looking at the underside of its leaves, where pests that attack houseplants are most commonly found.
Our TIP: AgroBio INPORO is a natural product that protects green houseplants during the occurrence of pests or fungal diseases.
- A reliable signal that it is time to bring houseplants into the warmth of the home is given by night-time temperatures. Once they fall below 10 °C, it is high time to put the houseplants somewhere safe, and if they are tropical species, move them indoors even earlier just to be safe!
- Do not be too hasty, though! A proven approach is to change the outdoor position before moving houseplants into the flat. First, simply move the plants from a sunny spot to somewhere shaded.
- Wait a few days, and then you can safely move the houseplants to a cooler room. Avoid the common mistake of moving them straight onto a windowsill or a short distance from the heater.
- Now it is necessary to set the right regime for the houseplants. You do this mainly by reducing watering to the absolute minimum. In winter, houseplants receive much less light and the plants enter a period of vegetative rest. They therefore need less water and fertiliser. If you notice yellowing leaves or roots rotting more easily, you are probably overwatering unnecessarily.
It is sometimes truly remarkable how much houseplants benefit from spending the summer outdoors in fresh air, and they quite literally come into their own before your eyes. In addition to becoming hardier and generally more resilient, they also develop much firmer leaves and, in some cases, larger and more beautiful flowers. And as they grow more beautiful, their original flowerpot may no longer be enough. In such cases, they will survive the winter better if you do not wait until spring, the usual time for repotting plants, to move them into a larger flowerpot. Inspiration for choosing a new flowerpot can be found in the following separate articles:
Our TIP: If you are looking for a fertiliser for palms, dracaenas or other types of green houseplants, try the mineral fertiliser FANTAZIE from the traditional Czech brand AgroBio. Thanks to its content of humic, stimulating and anti-stress substances, it is very beneficial for these houseplant species.
We also recommend these products:
- Smart flowerpot Cobble or Smart flowerpot Cobble Trio
- KP Flowering Houseplants 100 ml
- AgroBio INPORO Green Houseplants
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