This was made availble to us by Karl Slatner of Ft Lauderdale. Karl has a wonderful plant site and has a great deal to sell at reasonable pricesHow To
Winterize Your Plants
You have potted tropical plants that have been outdoors or in a patio area and shortly you will have to protect your plants against colder temperatures coming soon
For tropical plants, "cold" starts at 55 degrees
Where folks create their own problems is when tropicals are suddenly brought indoors. The tendency is to wait until the last possible day and then bring plants in ..and that doesn't work
One important "trick" is to pre-adjust your plants for indoor conditions and the main component is light and light hours
If you simply take a plant indoors, especially from a bright exposure, there is a serious shock from change of light and change of light hours. Doing so will result in leaf yellowing and leaf loss, a little or a lot of leaf loss ...the reason is the change
Here's what you do...
About 3 weeks before you expect to take plants indoors, start adjusting light hours and light exposure. To do so, move your outdoor potted plants to shade and thereafter to DEEP SHADE
Keep your plants in DEEP SHADE outdoors at least one week before you take plants indoors. Deep shade pushes plants to get used to much lower light conditions (like indoors in your home) and much lower light hours per day ...and OUTDOORS, your plants will handle DEEP SHADE much better than low light indoors
Also, starting at least 3 weeks before you expect to take plants indoors, back off on water a lot. Provide only the absolute minimum water each plant will tolerate. Also, in deep shade, less water is required automatically
For some reason, folks start thinking about fertilizer as fall approaches. The fact is, your LAST FEEDING of the year should be in later summer ...and then NO FOOD until late winter or early spring ...just before you will take your plants outdoors again. Feed well during warm and hot months
Avoiding fertilizer as time comes to go indoors is correct because plants slow growth way down or even stop in cooler/cold months. Fertilizer is actually a stress on plants applied at the wrong times
Indoor location is very important. We get email with location ideas like 1. the garage, 2. the basement, etc., but tropical plants (all indoor plants are tropical plants) expect year around warmth and plenty of sunlight hours, daily ...so basements are cold and dark, garages will be cold, both are very very poor choices
Indoors, a north window is almost impossible to be successful for your plants ...it's dark all the time on the north side.
East window is great and all plants love the morning sun.
South probably is the most bright light hours.
West may be OK, but west light can be too brief ...consider commercial Gro lights to provide added hours of sun-spectrum light ...and then you can have happy plants anywhere indoors
From deep shade outdoors, your plants are now as ready as they can be to live with you in your house. Feeding is complete and water has been reduced to a minimum and will stay at a minimum all indoor months
Even with all this preparation, plants will complain about the transition to indoor living. Leaf yellowing and some leaf loss is to be expected ...but your plants will stabilize in time
Keep the water low, keep temperatures warm and provide as many bright light hours as possible with your window selection
Also read here and here and here
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Tropical Plants Library Online
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