December Kind of Sucks: For You and Your Houseplants
Houseplants have a tough go of life in winter. Yes, they’re indoors, and they get to be warm, unlike all the dormant plants outdoors. But, we turn the furnace on, and it dries out the air like crazy. The days get super short, and some houseplants go into real dormancy. Some plants just slow down their growth dramatically.
Houseplants: “We’re Thirsty... But Kinda Not Really.”
One of the things you see most garden bloggers talk about is that indoor plants need less water in the winter. I’ve believed this for a long time because science! But I’ve never paid enough attention to really notice it. This year I paid attention. And in December, all my plants have reduced their water intake.
I have several plants in my basement windowsill in small terra cotta pots. Usually, these dry out super fast because they’re tiny pots and the air in our home is so dry in the winter. But since the beginning of December, they’ve been just sitting, drying out very slowly. I used to have to water them every 3-4 days because they’d be so dry the soil would be pulling away from the edges of the pots. Now they’ve been sitting well over a week since I last watered them.
There are some other weird things I’ve noticed too. When the soil does start to dry in my terra cotta pots in winter, it dries at hyperspeed. My ZZ plant will seem fine, the soil will look and feel damp for a few days, and then boom, overnight, it will dry out so hard that the dirt is pulling away from the edges of the pot and cracking. It's like there’s an on/off switch; the soil hangs onto the water until a certain point, and then all of a sudden, the plant uses it all up at once, and the soil is now dry as dust.
I’ve also noticed the most significant slow down in growth this month. Or rather, an absence of growth, really, on everything except my Jasmine. I guess it's my anomaly plant. It always grows a lot in winter, and it's put out several new shoots in the past 4-5 weeks. So it's actually using up quite a bit of water lately. And I’ve been fertilizing it, lightly, since it is growing.
I need to start fertilizing my African violets soon because otherwise, they won’t bloom again. Though, to be honest, I’m not sure if I want to keep them? Because I’m a little worried that they’re what brought mealy bugs into my house during a pandemic when it's impossible to get rubbing alcohol.
Houseplants: “Am I Dying? There’s No Light at The End of This Tunnel.”
Houseplants get a lot less light in December in the northern hemisphere. The days get increasingly shorter until the 21st when things turn around. At the beginning of December, we only got 7:50 minutes of daylight on December first. On the Solstice, we got 7 hours and 27 minutes. That’s nothing for plants that are used to 10+ hours of bright light in the summer.
Alberta winters used to be sunny, so you could at least count on those short days being bright. But lately, that’s not the case anymore. Daylight can be pretty cloudy and grey a lot of the time, so there’s even less light for your plants to photosynthesize with. If their leaves are dusty (more on this in a future blog), that impedes the process even more.
You can supplement with grow lights, but honestly, some plants really need that winter downtime. It's a bit of a rest period. So if your plants are going dormant, don’t worry too much about it.
It’s Been a Hard Month, Give Yourself a Break
December is a hard month for your plants, and maybe for you as well. It might feel like winter will last forever, but we’re on the upswing now, and the days will soon be noticeably longer.
If you’re noticing your plants are struggling right now, go easy on them. It can be really frustrating, but I’ll bet in a couple of weeks, towards the end of January, they’ll all be perking back up again.
Keep a close watch for pests in the meantime, and don’t water unless you’ve stuck your finger in the soil to find out if it's actually dry. The last thing your plants want to do right now is sit in a puddle of water.
