Winter Watering.

mike79

I don't know how much of a biological clock trees have... but I expect if you do what I do (bring tropicals in when temps dip to 40's) and they are suddenly brought into a climate significantly warmer, I think they assume that WAS winter - now it's spring time. My plants start actively growing within a couple weeks of being brought in. The scheffs have just finished up with their first burst of leaves, and the figs are getting a few leaves (larger-sized due to the lack of sunlight). Strangely, the larger fig that I left exposed to slightly colder temps than the others (but never below 40) is having a tough time getting started. It's in the same location and is more mature, and its leaves are nice and healthy but it only produced a few weak, small leaves that suddenly stopped maturing... Odd... Still, it sounds like the 40-60 temps of the room your plants are in are good for a resting ("tropical dormancy") period.

Water trays (trays filled with water sitting underneath the pots) along with misting seems to do good with my plants to counteract the dryness (and they're right above a heater vent). I have a suspicion, however, that they may attract insects - especially if you let excess fertilizer drip into them - as I had a small problem with some sort of white, circular shaped larvae-creature-millipede-thing-; and small flies seemed to enjoy hunkering around and in the trays. A good thing to remember that I'm sure you already know is that just because the surface of the soil seems dry, doesn't mean the plant needs to be watered (although it seems more likely to be the vice versa). Especially during indoor winter the top of the soil gets dry - I lift my plants up to see how much water they have. Succulents like jade have an added bonus in that you can feel the thickness of the leaves and probably get a rough estimate as to how much water they have stored up. Has worked for me.

On a side note, I wonder if it's possible to trick a plant into thinking 2 years have past when actually only one has. I have seen this with a jasmine that is supposed to bloom I guess once per year. It bloomed in mid spring after experiencing early spring cold, then bloomed again when I brought it in from cold fall temperatures (after a cooling period). I suppose they would produce fewer blossoms each time then... I may try this with an azalea this year.