4 Tips to Prepare Your House Plants for Autumn
When it comes to house plants, seasons matter. As the days begin to grow shorter and we move into autumn, here are four important tips to ensure you take good care of your house plants.
1. Bring Them Inside
There are certainly some of us that keep our house plants in indoor planters throughout the year. If this is true for you, you can move past this first tip. However, many people like to transplant their plants from indoor plant pots to outdoor plants during the summer.
However, the dawning of autumn means it is time to transition them back to an indoor setting. To prevent a big shock, move any outdoor house plants to a more shaded area with less heat before moving them inside. This will help with the transition.
2. Water Less Frequently
Have you ever gone for a run or walk outside in the summer only to come back needing lots of water? But in the spring or fall you wouldn’t be nearly as thirsty? The same is true for your house plants, which makes sense when you think about it.
During autumn, the plants are exposed to less sunlight and lower temperatures, which decreases their water needs. How do you know how much water to give your plants? Gently push you finger into the soil in your indoor plant pot. If the soil stick to your finger, no water is needed.
3. Loss of Leaves Is Not Necessarily Cause for Concern
If you are a fairly new plant person, you may begin to fret a bit when your indoor plants begin to lose leaves. However, this is a perfectly normal occurrence as we enter autumn. This is particularly the case when your plants are moved from outdoors to indoors.
During the autumn, your plants will be exposed to lower amounts of light. After all, there are fewer daylight hours. This means your house plants have less energy available to sustain foliage. Thus, they will shed mature leaves. You can even help them a bit by plucking leaves that look like they are being shed.
4. Consider Repotting if Needed
Your house plants will grow over time. For some plants, this means that they may need more space to grow. Since plants tend to grow the most during spring and summer, fall is a great time to assess their space needs.
If you have a plant that is overflowing their indoor planters or ceramic plant pot, it is definitely time to upgrade to a larger pot. Consider using a repotting mix to continue to promote growth during this time. Your plant will appreciate the added space when spring arrives again.
