How to care for pothos in winter? Pay attention to these points for safe overwintering
A lush, green pothos not only has good ornamental value but also acts as an air-purifying “freshener”, and it is especially common in offices. But when winter comes and the climate turns cold, how do you care for the warmth-loving pothos in winter so it always stays lush?
Pothos is one of the very best indoor decorative plants. In a room of 8-10 sq m, one pot of pothos is equivalent to an air purifier, effectively absorbing harmful gases in the air such as formaldehyde, benzene and trichloroethylene. Although pothos has very strong vitality, it is after all a flower that grows in tropical regions, so in a cold climate you need to pay attention to temperature, light and many other conditions for it to keep growing. Next, let's look at how to care for pothos in winter.
Pothos likes a warm, humid environment. In winter, under bright indirect light indoors, it grows well, with sturdy stems and nodes and brilliant leaf color. During the growing period it has relatively high water requirements. Besides normally replenishing water to the potting soil, you should also frequently spray water on the leaf surface, and for plants trained on a moss pole you should spray more water on the coir pole so the coir fully absorbs water for the aerial roots twining around the stem to take up.
Temperature
In the north, pothos can overwinter safely at a room temperature above 10°C, and can grow normally at a room temperature above 20°C. Generally, households have no problem reaching this temperature; what you need to watch out for is avoiding too great a temperature difference, and also making sure the leaves are not close to heating equipment.
Light
The original growing conditions of pothos are in forests shaded by towering trees, so its heliotropism is not strong. Although pothos is fairly shade-tolerant, in winter it is still best to place it somewhere indoors with good light, or move it to a sealed balcony at noon to bask in the sun. At the same time, when the temperature is low, open the windows as little as possible, because in an extremely short time the leaves can be frostbitten.
Humidity
While ensuring normal temperature, increasing humidity is extremely beneficial to the plant's growth. You can use the following methods to increase humidity. Place the plant near a humidifier, running the humidifier for more than 5 hours a day, so the plant can enjoy the mist the humidifier sprays out; use a sprayer adjusted to the mist setting to spray water on the plant's leaves, stems and aerial roots, several times a day.
Or keep an appropriate amount of water in the saucer under the pot, increasing the plant's local humidity through its evaporation; use a cold wet towel or toilet paper to gently wipe the leaf surface or gently apply it to the leaf surface for a short time (1-2 hours per day); cover the plant with transparent plastic film to create a mini-greenhouse effect, replenishing the plant's water through evaporation of moisture from the soil, for no more than 2 hours a day, since too long will affect the plant's ventilation and photosynthesis.
Water
In autumn and winter, the amount of watering should be strictly controlled according to room temperature. Before heating is turned on, the temperature is lower, the plant's soil evaporates more slowly, so reduce watering, controlling the amount to between 1/4-1/2 of the original. Even after heating is turned on, do not water too frequently; when watering, pour less into the pot and let water seep through the coir.
In addition, you should also spray water where the aerial roots grow on the coir pole, to reduce insufficient root water uptake caused by too-rapid evaporation. For winter watering, water that has been left to sit for a day is better; water that is too cold easily damages the roots.
Fertilizing
In the autumn and winter in the north, most plants grow slowly or even stop growing, so fertilizing should be reduced. Before the start of winter, mainly apply liquid inorganic fertilizer, about once every 15 days. After the start of winter, mainly apply fertilizer by foliar spraying, mainly through the stomata on the leaf surface to absorb fertilizer, so the fertilizer effect can act directly on the leaf surface. For foliar fertilizer, use a special-purpose fertilizer; ordinary inorganic fertilizer is not easily absorbed by the leaf surface.
In winter the temperature is low, and pothos leaves are easily frostbitten, so you must pay attention to getting the temperature right. Indoors, generally watering once every 4 days is enough; do not water too much, otherwise the pothos roots easily rot. The above are the methods for how to care for pothos in winter, for your reference!
How to care for pothos in winter? How to prevent pothos from freezing to death?
Winter has arrived, and many flower lovers worry that their pothos will freeze to death in winter. Actually, whether it freezes to death depends on the temperature in the flower lover's home. Pothos is a tropical plant, and after so many years of domestication it has a certain cold tolerance, but its limit is not high; generally speaking, the winter temperature must not be below 10°C, otherwise there is a possibility of freezing to death, so if you want your pothos not to freeze to death, do not keep it in an environment below 10°C.
If pothos leaves turn yellow and wilt in winter, then you need to be careful; this is a sign that the temperature is too low. For winter care of pothos, try not to water (water less); if the pothos leaves droop, let them droop, and when the weather warms up they will naturally revive, but if you keep watering heavily through winter, it will be very hard for it to get through the winter.
In addition, there are many uncertain factors in pothos overwintering; relatively sturdy pothos is more cold-tolerant, while pothos that usually grows weakly is less cold-tolerant.
In fact, in the end, to get pothos safely through winter, one thing is to ensure the temperature as much as possible, and another is to control watering and not fertilize. Taking Shanghai as an example, in the same area, some flower lovers' pothos overwintered safely, while others froze to death, so while controlling water appropriately, we should place pothos somewhere with sunlight as much as possible and not exposed to drafts.
How should pothos be cared for in winter
Light management for pothos
In fact, pothos is not a plant that needs very much light, but in the winter in the north, it is still easy for pothos to suffer from insufficient sunlight, so in winter you should appropriately increase the light exposure for pothos. You can place it somewhere indoors with fairly ample light, or put it on the balcony, so that the pothos gets ample light. In winter the temperature is lower, so it must not be left outdoors for too long.
Temperature management for pothos
Generally, pothos is grown indoors, and in winter, as long as the indoor temperature is above 10°C, pothos can overwinter very safely; if the temperature can reach above 20°C, pothos can even keep growing. But be careful not to place pothos near heating equipment just to keep it warm.
Water management for pothos
When winter comes, the growth rate of pothos slows down and its water needs become smaller. Because the temperature is low, water evaporates slowly, so there is no need to water too much; generally, reducing the water amount to half of the usual watering is enough. After heating is turned on, you also must not increase the amount of watering. When watering in winter, you can first leave the water to sit indoors for a day before watering, which allows the water to rise to a temperature close to the indoor temperature, and when you then water the pothos it can prevent cold water from frostbiting the pothos roots.
Fertilizer management for pothos
In winter, pothos grows very slowly, so in winter you should reduce fertilizing pothos. During this period you can apply a little foliar fertilizer to the pothos; foliar fertilizer can be absorbed through the leaves, which is better for the pothos's growth in winter.