The Organic Way to Bring Your Houseplants Indoors This Fall: Without Bringing a Single Pest Inside

The prediction the other minute indicated a 46 F night and your porch is junglesome. And this is the same experience of American plant parents every fall, and the same experience of warm-weather plants, which may harbor uninvited guests such as aphids, mealybugs, and spider mites. This guide provides you with a basic, primarily organic plan step-by-step to transfer your plants inside and leave any remnant pest behind.

Speedy response: Take indoor the tropical plants when the nighttime temperatures begin to decrease to approximately 50-55 o F. During the two weeks preceding the move, visit all the plants, water the plants and apply an organic pesticide like the insecticidal soap or neem. Isolate each plant two to four weeks after it is indoors.

When to Bring Houseplants Inside (and Why 50°F Is the Magic Number)

The majority of commonly-kept houseplants are either tropical or subtropical, meaning that cold gets them well ahead of frost. Damage to the chill may start when the temperatures sink to the low 50s. Sensitive plants such as pothos, philodendron and hibiscus could become limp or lose leaves during the night. (Source: University extension services)

The most safe thing to do is to begin to bring plants in once the night temperatures reach about 5055 F. it is often too late to wait until a frost warning is issued.
Best benchmark is your local first frost date, and the frost-date data provided by NOAA can be easily looked up.

The following is a rough guide of this table:

(Reference: NOAA frost-date data, and local extension services. These are approximate windows, which change with microclimate.)
Attempt to make the move before turning on the furnace. Plants adapt more readily when the temperature inside and out are similar and an abrupt change in 45F nighttime temperatures to a warm and cozy living room of 72F is stressful to the plants.

How to Bring Houseplants Indoors for Winter: A 4-Week Timeline

Pests creep in by rushing the move in one afternoon. Breaking up the work into four weeks allows you time to identify problems, cure them and allow plants time to adapt. Fall routines such as this are available in our seasonal gardening guides, which you can fall in love with a good checklist.

Four to Three Weeks Out: Scout and Prep

Select your isolation location, like a spare bedroom or bathroom or enclosed porch, and check the extended forecast. And pack your baggage:

• A zoom phone or magnifying glass.
• A tub or bucket to soak pots.
• Insecticidal soap and neem oil.
• Isopropyl alcohol 70% and cotton swabs.
• Yellow sticky traps.
• Fresh potting mix.
• Sharp, clean pruners.

Prune off dead, yellow, or withered growth now. Make it fly, as heavy pruning just before a move causes stress.

Two Weeks Out: Inspect and Clean

This is what happens to be the most important. Check all plants, wash their foliage and dampen pots. This is how, as discussed in the following three sections.

One Week Out: Treat and Acclimate

Spray your first organic spray and then move plants to a shaded area outdoors. Light indoors is usually very much lower than outdoors, even in a sunny window, and a gradual step-down will avoid a shock. The article is composed of two sections.<|human|>The article consists of two parts.

Move-In Day: Final Check and Settle

Select a warm, sunny day. Look at the plants one more time, wipe the pot and the saucer and examine the holes of the drain. Plants should be in the brightest place you can provide. The most light-loving ones of the bunch are flowering tropicals such as hibiscus and mandeville.
Water slightly less than you did out of doors, as growth is slowed in low light. Avoid fertilizer until spring. It is natural that a few fallen leaves during the first month are usual as plants adapts.

How to Debug Houseplants Before Bringing Inside: The Pest Inspection

Allow 5-10 minutes per plant. Do it during the day, and carry your magnifying glass.
Check these spots:

• Undersides of leaves
• At junctions of leaves and stems. New growth and buds.
• The surface and slightly below of the soil.
• Saucer and drainage holes.
• The side and the edge of the pot.

Test any leaf, which appears speckled or dusty, with the white paper test. Place a piece of white paper under the leaf and strike it against the leaf. It is almost impossible that the specks which begin to crawl are not mites.

Match what you find to this table:

Pests that you can not recognize can still be corrected, and our organic pest control guides can assist you in limiting them down.

How Do You Avoid Bringing Pests Inside With Your Plants? Use This Cleanup Routine

Seeing informs you of what exists. This daily routine takes away the majority of it even those pests that can not be seen.

Follow the following steps:

1. Rinse the foliage. Use a hard spray of a hose or of your shower, and strike the undersides of the leaves. This blows off aphids, mites and dust.
2. Soak the pot. Put the pot in a bucket of lukewarm water such that the water is about an inch above the soil line. Wait 15–20 minutes. Insects in the soil will either float or crawl out. (Source: University extension services) Bypass this with cacti and succulents, which do not like wet feet.

1. Wipe everything down. Wipe the pot, and the saucer and the stakes of the plants with a wet cloth.
2. Reboot the upper layer. Take away the top 1-2 inches of soil and put in new potting mix. In case a plant had been severely infested repot it completely.
3. Remove debris. Rake up dead leaves, moss and pebbles on the surface. They make ideal concealment places.
4. Treat with an organic spray. How is discussed in the next section.

Be frank about lost causes, as well. In case a plant is infested with pests, you can cut off a healthy plant and compost the rest to salvage your entire harvest.

Neem Oil for Houseplants: What to Know Before You Spray

Neem is squeezed out of the neem tree seeds. It is able to deter feeding, disrupt pest development and even smother soft-bodied insects in contact. It is slow, therefore it cannot show immediate results but rather repeat applications.
It remains to be a pesticide product. It is regulated by the U.S. EPA, so always read and follow the label. This contributes to the rise in tourism activities.<|human|>This adds to the increased tourism activities.

Do:

• Apply a product designed to be used on ornamental or indoor plants.
• Combine in a precise manner.
• Spray at night or when in the shade so as not to burn the leaves. Test a leaf, wait 2448 hours.
• Apply to the underside of leaves and stems. Repeat every 7-14 days approximately three rounds or as instructed on label.

Don't:

• Spray in hot weather or direct sun
• Omit patch test on sensitive plants such as ferns.
• Allow pets or children to touch wet leaves.
• One spray is expected to resolve an infestation.

Insecticidal soap is a terrific companion. It kills soft bodied pests when it comes into contact but only when it touches them so complete coverage is important. Apply a soap with a label, not a dish detergent, which will harm the leaves. (Source: University of Maryland Extension)

How to Quarantine New Houseplants (and Your Returning Ones)

All the plants which have been kept out during the summer are to be handled as newcomers. So ought any plant you purchase this fall. Keep them all segregated two or four weeks, then add them to your indoor collection. (Source: University extension services)

Prepare your isolation area:

• Choose another room, preferably a room with a door and a window.
• Plants that are already there should be at least several feet away when quarantined.
• Stick a yellow sticky trap or two.
• Write the date of move-in of each plant.
• Wash your hands and equipment after using them.

Test all plants once in a week. Search in the webbing, sticky residue, new bumps, or tiny flying insects. Pest eggs can be resistant to one treatment, and they will hatch a week or so later. When you see anything, re-treat, and reset the clock.
A plant is considered to have graduated when it has completed the entire period with no pests, no webbing and nothing that is sticky. It can only then be given a place on the shelf with your favorites.

Your Fall Plant Move, Simplified

The introduction of plants to the house does not necessarily imply the introduction of bugs. When the nights drop to the low 50s, water and examine all plants, spray with an organic spray, and provide each plant with a few weeks of solitude before being added to the rest. Do so, and your indoor jungle is healthy throughout the winter. You are good to go? Follow our advice on winter houseplant care and have everything blooming through the spring.

References

• University of Minnesota Extension: guidance on tropical plant cold sensitivity and moving houseplants indoors in fall.
• University of Maryland Extension, Home & Garden Information Center: insecticidal soap use, houseplant pests, and pot-soaking guidance.
• U.S.Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): pesticide product labeling and safe-use requirements.
• NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information: average first frost dates by location.
• University extension services (general): indoor light levels, quarantine periods, alcohol-swab treatment for mealybugs and scale, and repeat-treatment timing for pest eggs (see USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture).