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- So it is getting to be winter here
in the Epichouse plant jungle.
And what I wanted to do was give a couple pointers to you
as far as what should you do with all these plants
when Winter comes, season starts to slow down,
how do we make sure that they're nice, happy, and healthy?
So I put together 13 different tips
and considerations for you.
I want get through 'em really quickly
so you can get to them in your house plant garden
and really start to care for these bad boys.
So let's go ahead and get into it.
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Tip number one is watering.
We can reduce our watering frequency in winter
by about half, just because our plants
aren't growing as much.
They're going into a dormant phase
which means they're using less of
more less all of the resources
that they typically would need to grow.
So if I'm watering this wandering Jew plant,
the Tradescantia zebrina here, maybe once a week,
I might ramp that down to twice a month instead.
Tip number two is actually the amount of water
we give a plant when we do water it.
So in the winter, not only we're watering less
but we're using less water when we water.
So let's say for example,
this Peperomia needed around a cup of water,
I might give it two thirds cup when I water it in the winter
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Tip number three is again a watering one.
When we water, make sure you're using water
that is in that Goldilocks zone of just right,
as far as temperature goes.
The last thing you want to do is throw some cold water
into the root zone.
It's just really not gonna appreciate that.
That's kind of a tip for gardening
with house plants in general,
but especially during the winter
'cause you might leave some water out
and then it might get quite cold and drafty
and then you hit your plants roots with it
and it just shocks the crap out of 'em.
You really don't want to do that.
Tip four, to remember that the direction of the sun
or the path of the sun changes in the winter
which changes the way that light spills into your rooms
which means that you may have to reposition
some of your plants come wintertime.
I would very highly recommend shoving all of the plants
that are light loving plants as close to the windows
in your house as humanly possible
to give them much natural light as you can possibly afford.
And then the ones that can tolerate a little bit less light
sacrifice those in a sense
and move those a little bit further away.
And it's really kind of a nice time
to reposition, redesign,
get into aesthetic in the house line garden.
Tip number five is you may want to rotate your plants.
You can see the Syngonium here has really made
a break in this direction.
And that's because it's on my plant stand over here
pointing towards the sun which is right over here.
So, I actually have already rotated this once.
I'm gonna rotate it again.
It's a good time in winter to do this.
Let all of your plants kind of even out
if that's the look you like.
Personally, I do like that they kind of look even.
So I'm gonna go ahead and put this one like this
put it over here and now it's gonna reach
towards the sun this way and balance itself out.
Tip number six is to consider supplemental grow lights.
I'm standing right now underneath my Soltech solutions light
which is one of the more aesthetic indoor grow light options
especially for ornamentals because
while the performance is good
I would probably not use it to grow like edibles indoors
like I would with some of the other LEDs
I've reviewed on this channel
but this is a beautiful one that you can go ahead
and just add to your garden.
In the winter our plants aren't getting as much light.
If you do feel like you wanna supplement,
this is a really good one.
Of course there's many other options on the market as well
but it's just a consideration to give your plants
a little bit more light.
Tips number seven and tip number eight,
don't worry about fertilizing too much,
don't worry about repoting too much.
We don't have to fertilize because we're going
into a dormancy season for almost all of our house plants.
So they're not really going to be needing
nor using too much of that fertilizer if we were to add it.
And it's kind of the same idea with a repot.
You're not repoting in winter too often
because they aren't growing that much
and they won't really need to grow into that.
I like to repot at the end of winter,
as we move into spring and fertilizes we move into spring.
But as we move into winter, we don't have to do that.
Tip nine, keep your plants away from any portable heaters
or heating vents like that one right there.
In the winter, especially in this house,
it gets pretty dang cold.
Sometimes I break and I have to run the heater.
So I just make sure that none of my heat vents
are blasting my plants as well as the ones on the ground
just because that's gonna drop the humidity,
it's gonna kind of dehydrate them.
It's just not a good environment for them to live in.
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On the flip side, tip 10 is to not keep them too close
to a drafty window or an AC unit or anything
that's blowing cold air as well.
It's gonna kind of do the same thing
just in a different way.
For example, I've got my portable AC unit right here
while I'm not running that in the winter, for sure,
if this was to kind of slide open,
there could be a nice draft coming in
and just not really being too friendly to my plants.
So just do a quick scan
make sure that that's not going on
in your house plant jungle.
(upbeat music)
Tip number 11 is to consider getting a humidifier
because in the winter we're running our heaters,
our air is drying out even further, the humidity is dropping
and we're growing a lot of tropical plants,
which typically love humidity.
And so you can just put a little water in the pot
with some pebbles that doesn't raise the humidity
all that much.
You probably should consider getting a humidifier.
I'll leave a link down below to the one that I like a lot.
But, just a thought, can give your house plants
a little bit of break from that dry, dry, dry air.
Tip number 12 is to watch for pests in the winter.
The dry air can actually cause a resurgence of spider mites
'cause they typically like drier air,
but also you're just kind of watching your garden less,
and so, you know, inspect the undersides of your leaves.
Usually the Satin pothos doesn't have any,
but just as an example, you want to inspect,
look in the nooks and crannies,
make sure that a pest problem isn't getting just
out of control in the winter so that when spring comes
your plants are really nice and healthy.
You can fertilize 'em.
You can get them growing
without just getting decimated by pests.
And our final tip, tip 13,
is to take a little time, whip out your pruning gears.
I've got mine in my epic harvest apron.
Link is in the description below if you like this apron.
I think there's only 100 of them being sold
this holiday season.
So definitely please go check that out.
But yeah it's a good time to come through
with your pruning snips, cut off any dead material,
do some pruning, collect it all,
make sure there's no disease material
and just reshape your plants.
You can even toss the clippings in a propagator
if you want to, to get those ready for next spring.
But I'm gonna go ahead and do a little bit more pruning.
I hope these 13 tips are helpful.
If you have any tips that you like to do in winter
definitely drop 'em down below.
And links to anything I've mentioned
will also be down below.
So until next time, good luck in the garden.
Good luck in the house plant garden
and keep on growing.