Here’s a few of my winter tips for your indoor plant collections.
I don't have a lot of trouble with the lack of humidity here, it is usually about 60 percent in the house all the time…lol
Here's a few things you can try if you do need to increase humidity that's kinda neat :
* Use a small table top fountain on a pebble tray around your plants and create a little vignette or scene.
* Use a small aquarium with pebbles or decorative rocks in the bottom filled with a small amount of water and set the plants on top of the gravel. You can place several plants in a ten gallon aquarium and even a small figurine or 2 for decorations.
* If you only have one or two plants and need a cheaper idea…save the plastic cake domes you get from the bakery and put the plant in them. After you clean them up a bit they work wonderful and I even use them to isolate sick plants or raise plantlets in.
* Remember to warm that water just a little that's coming out of the faucet before you water those AV's.
* You can use the Mosquito granules sprinkled in the pot, on the mat or even in your watering can to help rid your plants of gnats. I use it on ALL new plants added to my house plant collection.
* Remember to move those AV's and other gesneriads in a few more inches away from those cold windows.
So what are your winter care tips and decorating ideas?
Enjoy,
MsC
Winter Tips for Indoor Plants...
so glad you posted this.
On the mosquito granules, did you say you are using Bayer brand Advanced Garden Mosquito Preventer granules? I can attest for a fact that mosquito dunks (those donut shaped things for putting in your pond) do not work on fungus gnats (at least the gnats here). I should check out the Bayer.
Another tip for windowsill growers is to check how cold the sill itself if. My office, for example, has freezing cold sills - colder than the glass, even. I place some sort of insulation under the plant so the rootball does not get cold.
I also avoid watering in the evenings in the office, and water less often. (At home, everything is under lights and the temp does not drop below 65F, so no worries there.) Most of them slow down a bit during the winter anyway, whether or not they are under lights - although I think my AVs keep going.
This is a good time of year to be starting leaves and seeds. Many gessies take about 6-8 months from seed/leaves to flowering, so if you start now....