With winter here, gardening efforts shift indoors with a focus on maintaining house plants. Chris Enroth, Horticulture Educator with the University of Illinois Extension says during the winter months, house humidity levels are typically low, which can cause issues with many indoor plants. Instead of watering these plants more, increasing the risk for root rot, Enroth shares some tips to help maintain tropical houseplants.
“A lot of times, what we suggest to folks if you’re seeing plants lose leaves, or if they are wilting- cluster them together if you can. When we have groups of plants, it actually creates this little envelope of higher humidity around those plants, because they’re losing water through their leaves, and it just increases that humidity ever so slightly around those plants,” says Enroth. “The other tip is, we often will say, put some pebbles in the saucer that’s underneath the pot, and instead of filling the pot with water, put water in the saucer, so that way your roots aren’t sitting in the water and rotting.”
