As winter approaches, we begin to think about what effect the shorter days and reduced light levels will have on our houseplants.
If you are using natural light to grow your houseplants, the amount of light available in your home or office will decrease during the winter.
As the days shorten, the duration of light will decrease and your plant will receive light for fewer hours each day. This will reduce the amount of light your houseplant has available for growth.
Also as the sun drops lower in the fall and winter skies, the intesity of the light decreases. This will also reduce the amount of light available for plant growth.
Fortunately your houseplants have adapted to this seasonal change.
Except for plants that normally grow only near the equator, the seasonal change of light has been a part of your houseplant’s environment for thousands of years.
Even those plants that only grow near the equator ( and indoors) have adapted to a season of less light. Near the equator there is often a wet season which has long periods of heavy cloud cover. This cloud cover will reduce the light available to the plant.
So, how does this affect your houseplant in winter? Well not very much actually. If your houseplants are in enough light to provide a healthy rate of growth in the summer, they will do just fine in the winter.
The houseplant will enter a period ofsemi dormancy or dormancy in which the growth slows or stops altogether.
When the days lengthen and the light intensity increases, the houseplant will break out of it’s dormancy and begin a new phase of growth.
