Plants in winter: how to take care of them and not fail them in cold weather

Quite often, winter can be synonymous with a slowdown in the growth of your plants. The explanation is quite logical: just as humans can be a little more introspective or less restless than in summer, something similar happens to plants during this season.

But don’t panic. To understand this process and the proper care of plants in winter, we spoke with two specialists in botany and plant care.

“We have to be mindful of temperatures,” says Daniela Maldonado, founder and entrepreneur of the gardener , a store specializing in everything you might need from the world of plants. “In the news, they always report when there will be frost,” he adds. “If they register less than 0 degrees, there the plants can burn, because not all of them resist.”

“In the case of potted outdoor plants, when temperatures drop a lot, the best thing to do is move them indoors,” says Wilma Borchers, environmental and natural resources engineer and founder of @eljardindeirenee , space in which, in addition to marketing various species, it also gives workshops to guide beginners. “For those who are not indoors but also cannot move around, it is good to cover them with reeds or anti-frost netting, which are 100% recommended,” he recommends.

“At this time, it is normal to water when the winter sun comes, like the one that shone some of these days”, Comments by Maldonado. At this time of year, the technique he suggests is “to irrigate early in the morning and wait for the water to dry, so that when the frost does come, there is no wet surface that may then ice or freeze.

Like Borchers, the El Jardinista helmsman also sees antifreeze mesh as a key product for outdoor plants to withstand the cold. “The one we have, you can leave it for several days, without having to put it in and take it out from time to time, because plants can still photosynthesise,” he says.

The sprayer has long been one of the most used tools by people who take care of plants, since thanks to it they manage to provide the necessary humidity they need to grow but without drowning them too much. In winter, yes, Maldonado suggests not overwatering “and making sure that the plates (those that pass under the pots) do not have water” when watering.

Perhaps you have seen, while visiting a house or on the terrace of a restaurant, that on the ground of certain plants there is a kind of bark, something like a natural carpet. It is the mulch, which precisely serves to “warm up” the vegetables, explains Maldonado, “and helps to prevent the roots of the plant from cooling down”. You can apply it “on the pots or the ground” and it will automatically regulate the temperature and also the humidity of the plants. Being organic material, it is not expensive to buy, but if you cannot get it, it is also useful to use “tree bark or straw”, adds- he.

“We need to be very clear that houseplants are species that basically need to be indoors,” says Borchers. “These are plants that should live inside the house, so don’t even try to keep them outside,” he says.

Therefore, if they are indoors, they must live under shelter and with the same shelter that you have at home. “Most of these plants are tropical. As for heating in winter, the ambient humidity drops a lot, you have to worry about maintaining it,” explains the creator of @eljardindeirenee .

One of the techniques Borchers recommends is to know the plants, identify their species and see “which are the most sensitive and intolerable to low temperatures”. “If you know what they are,” he says, “what you can do is group them together and keep them away from windows if they’re not insulated.”

“If they are assembled according to their characteristics, a kind of microclimate is created between them, they protect each other and they ensure the ambient humidity”, he specifies.

As a girl, I remember when my mother and my grandmother called me when they came out of the shower in the winter. “It’ll give you a break”, “you’ll be cold”, they both told me if I walked around a lot covered only with the towel. Apparently, this phenomenon occurs exactly as with indoor plants.

“It is advisable to keep them away from windows and doors that open and close, to avoid drafts,” explains the engineer.

That doesn’t mean you have to lock your plants in: it’s all right. “It is important to ventilate the environments, because sometimes mold appears on the support when the spaces have not been sufficiently ventilated”, adds the expert from El Jardinista.

On the coldest days, stoves and radiators appear in the most recurrent places in the house. One of them is usually the living-dining room, a space where plants are also usually grouped together.

“Heating dries out the environment, so you have to spray the plants a bit more, which, since most of them are tropical, need humidity,” says Maldonado. “It is necessary to moisten the leaves not very close, at least about 20 cm, and not every day either.”

“You don’t have to expect much from them during these months,” says Daniela Maldonado. “In the winter they tend to go dormant and not grow as much vegetatively. A lot of people are waiting for us to have a new leaf and it doesn’t come out, but that’s super normal these days.”

“We have less light available in our homes, so there we have to rearrange and rearrange the plants so that they get what they need,” he points out.

In this particular period, specialists suggest watering when the substrate – the soil where the plant lives – is dry. “There are people who know their little plants and follow their rhythm. Those who don’t have one can use meters that show the level of moisture in the soil,” says Maldonado.

If a general estimate should be made, it suggests that during the winter it should be watered every 15 days. “It’s like an approximation, because here it depends on each plant, the ambient temperature, the type of substrate and the size of the pot,” he adds.

“In winter, plants experience a kind of recreation, a vegetative rest,” teaches Borchers. “Therefore, we must respect their rest.”

“One piece of advice I can give – and especially when there are sunny days – is that winter can be a good time for transplants,” he suggests. “Because the plants are dormant, they don’t suffer as much from the changes.”

“Grafting and changing pots in the spring can make them more stressed, as some flower and some change a lot of little leaves. Thus, the plant gets into a confusion of not knowing whether it should develop the root or the leaves,” adds Borchers. Taking advantage of doing this logistics during the winter lag period “is ideal for changing substrates, or making amendments (as we say when we improve the substrate of the plant), transplanting, pruning, cleaning the leaves or doing biostimulation”.

For plant keepers who started their taste for the plant world during a pandemic, winter can have them with goosebumps. There is no need to despair; on the contrary, much can be learned from experience. “Freezing is necessary for certain processes in our factories and it benefits them as well,” says Borchers. For the same reason, he points out that “we have to lose our fear and take advantage of the fact that in autumn or winter we have other species to enjoy”.

“You have to learn to look at the landscape with different eyes”, explains the specialist, calling for reflection and respect for the environment, and to take advantage of the weather and the cycles of nature.

*Prices for products in this item are current as of July 14, 2022. Values ​​and availability subject to change.