Bringing Plants Indoors: Your Fall Houseplant Reset

The plants that thrived on your porch all summer are heading into a very different month. Nights are dipping, the sun is setting earlier, and the heat has started cycling on indoors. Fall is the season houseplants most often get accidentally overwatered and under-lit, usually by people trying to help. Here is a simple reset to get yours through the transition.

Move Them In Before the First Cold Night

Most tropical houseplants start to sulk once nighttime temperatures drop into the 50s, so don't wait for frost in the forecast. Before they come inside:

• Check the undersides of leaves and the surface of the soil for hitchhiking pests.
• Rinse and wipe the leaves so they can make the most of weaker indoor light.
• Pull dead leaves and spent flowers, but save heavy pruning for spring.
• Scrub the outside of the pots so you aren't carrying grime onto sills and floors.

If you can, bring them in over a week or two rather than all at once. Going from outdoor light to indoor light is a big change, and a gradual move means fewer dropped leaves.

Water Less, Not More

Growth slows down in fall, and water use slows with it. The same weekly schedule that worked in July will leave roots sitting wet in October, which is the most common cause of a sad fall houseplant. So stop watering on a calendar and start watering when the soil is actually dry.

That is easier to judge with a tool than with a fingertip. The Soil Moisture Meter with Stainless Steel Probe reads moisture on a 1 to 10 dial, where 1 to 3 is dry, 4 to 7 is normal and 8 to 10 is wet. Push the probe in, read the dial, and walk away if it is still damp. It needs no batteries, and the same tool also reads soil pH.

Find the Right Window, Then Check It

Indoor light in October is nothing like indoor light in June. The sun sits lower and the days are shorter, so a windowsill that was perfect in summer can spend most of the afternoon in shadow. Move your plants toward the brightest glass you have, and check the room at two different times of day.

The soil meter switches to a light mode for exactly this, reading 0 to 2000 lux, with 0 to 200 counting as low and 1000 to 2000 as high. Walk it around the room mid-morning and again mid-afternoon and the good spots become obvious. Keep pots off radiators and away from heat vents and drafty doors too, since dry blasts of air are hard on leaves.

Traveling for the Holidays? Set Up a Slow Drip

The other fall hazard is the long weekend away. A deep soak before you leave tends to run out or run straight through, and a steady trickle works better.

The 3.5L IV Plant Life Drip Watering Bag hangs from a hook, a stand or a railing and feeds a spike pushed into the soil, with an adjustable valve to set the flow. Depending on the plant, the temperature and the soil, one filled bag can run roughly 3 to 20 days, and the set includes 12 drip devices so you can cover several pots at once.

A little less water, a brighter window and a plan for the days you are away is most of what houseplants ask for this time of year. Browse the full VIGOR collection for more home and garden essentials to see you through the season.