{"id":120,"date":"2011-01-10T12:00:45","date_gmt":"2011-01-10T17:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=120"},"modified":"2011-01-09T13:59:25","modified_gmt":"2011-01-09T18:59:25","slug":"winter-care-of-house-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2011\/01\/10\/winter-care-of-house-plants\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Care of House Plants"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lovely Foliage Plants at Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Most plants adapt to\u00a0winter’s shorter daylength and low light intensity. Interior plants\u00a0require less\u00a0water and nutrients. Plants also adapt to the\u00a0lower room humidity in our modern day homes. Grouping plants together and spritzing them 1-2 times a day is helpful.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Soil moisture\u00a0needs varies with the type of plants and\u00a0the kind of containers (plastic, clay or ceramic). How long has the plant been in the same pot or planter?\u00a0 Plastic and ceramic pots retain\u00a0soil moisture longer than clay pots.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I urge gardeners to\u00a0adopt a\u00a0simplistic house plant care approach. Fit plants on your\u00a0everyday schedule. Make watering\u00a0part of the Saturday morning chores or after Sunday church services or prior to Sunday game kickoff. Water 1-2 times weekly. If some plants don’t need water, skip them.<\/p>\n

As winter wanes, tackle the job of re-potting those plants that have not been re-potted in\u00a0one year.\u00a0Gently shake off some old potting mix and transplant into a slightly larger container and new soil-less media.<\/p>\n

Beginning March 1st, feed plants every 2-3 weeks. Most branded “house plant” fertilizers work well. My personal tip is to decrease\u00a0\u00a0recommended label amounts by half, and fertilizie plants\u00a0twice as often from March through October.<\/p>\n

Be vigilant about bugs and diseases. Simply washing the foliage with a mild dish washing soap, insecticidal soap or\u00a0miscible oils can clean\u00a0off most pest problems. Frequently, pest\u00a0problems can be\u00a0resolved without\u00a0using inorganic pesticides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lovely Foliage Plants at Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC Most plants adapt to\u00a0winter’s shorter daylength and low light intensity. Interior plants\u00a0require less\u00a0water and nutrients. Plants also adapt to the\u00a0lower room humidity in our modern day homes. Grouping plants together and spritzing them 1-2 times a day is helpful. Soil moisture\u00a0needs varies with the type […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[71,113],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":741,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions\/741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}