Logee's Greenhouse

When is it time to bring my plants inside?
For most plants it is time to bring them in before the temperatures drop below freezing. However for your warm loving tropicals, it’s best to bring them in when the nights consistently drop into the 40°’s.

What can I expect when I bring my plants inside?
Remember when bringing your outdoor plants inside, they often go into an adjustment period. This is normal. Leaves may drop off. Maintain watering and reduce or stop fertilizing. Giving them as much light as possible is important, the decreasing light is the most difficult part of the transition. Also, it's a good time to start the humidifier to increase moisture in the air. When watering remember to bring the surface of the soil to dryness, this helps in reducing the possibility of root rot. Also when you do give them a drink, water them thoroughly.

For warm loving plants keep them above 60 degrees. For cool growers keep them above freezing. Try to avoid excessively warm night temperatures as it increases humidity stress and forces weak growth. This is the time of the year when growth needs to be held in check, as we wait for the shift to increasing day length.

What about bugs? Do I spray first?
The downside of bringing plants inside is, of course, bringing the bugs in also. But if you get a jump on treating your plants early you can avoid big problems later. We recommend inspecting your plants for the telltale signs of pests and give them a preventative spraying of Neem Oil. Once you’ve done this, then you may safely bring your plants inside.

If you have signs of pest invasion, then it is important to treat your plants before they come inside to the main growing area because they can infect clean plants. This is always a problem around the holidays because many times gardeners forget that even Poinsettias may have bugs. Then the holiday pests become pests for your once clean collection of plants.

What are the telltale signs of pests on my plants?
This is a very involved question but there are a few signs that should alert you right away to trouble. First look on the underside of the leaves and ask these questions:

Are there any cottony masses? - Indicative of mealy bugs
Are there any bumps on the leaves or the stems and a black film on the leaves? - Indicative of scale
Are there clusters of small soft bodied insects on the growing tips? - Indicative of aphids
Do the tops of the leaves have tiny little dots or peppering on them? - Indicative of spider mite.
Are the flowers discolored on the edges? - Indicative of Thrip

How do I treat a bug infestation?
Once you’ve identified the pest, then there are different measures you can take. We have written a wonderful book called Logee’s Spectacular Container Plants that goes into detail how to control the different pests by understanding the life cycle of the pest, but in general we recommend Neem Oil for most problems. Mix 2 tablespoons of Neem Oil and 2 teaspoons of dishwashing detergent into 1 gallon of water. Then spray the plant several times over a two or three week period. It is best to use a pump sprayer that can apply some force to the spray droplets. Be sure you cover the entire plant, top and bottom, leaving no surface untouched. All it takes is one or two bugs to survive and the problem will remerge.

Do I prune the plant back?
We generally don’t recommend pruning unless it is necessary to fit the plant into its growing area. Although they may still be in active growth this will shortly slow down and come to a stand still. As there is usually some leaf drop on moving them in, it best to preserve as many leaves as possible to help carry them through the darker day of the year. Once growth has resumed in the spring they can be cut back for resizing or restructuring.

Also look at the blooming cycle (i.e. winter bloomer, spring bloomer or ever bloomer). Winter bloomers are usually budding up at this time and pruning will remove the unseen flower buds.

Byron and Laurelynn Martin

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