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As the days get shorter, it’s time to start thinking about what we need to do to overwinter our plants. While your plants have enjoyed being outside this summer, most will need to come in before the temperatures dip below 50 degrees consistently. However, something we often get questions about is overwintering citrus and fig trees, and what extra steps we need to take to make sure they’ll get through the winter season.
Citrus, like most houseplants and tropicals, like to be transitioned slowly back inside. You can move them from out in the full sun to under a tree or a covered porch before moving them completely inside. This will give your plant time to acclimate slowly to the changing temperatures and daylight exposure.
Before bringing your citrus inside, there are a few things you should do:
- Trim off any dead or unhealthy-looking branches. This helps the plant to direct its energy to all the parts of the plant that need it most.
- Thoroughly hose down your plant by washing off any unwanted hitch-hikers from coming inside with your plant.
- Apply some mosquito bits or diatomaceous earth to your plant. This will help keep your plant bug-free from the bottom up. We recommend using a spray like a neem oil or safer insect soap for the top part of your plant to kill any bugs you may see. And the mosquito bits and diatomaceous earth for the soil, for bugs you can’t see. (This is especially important in the overwintering.)
- No fertilizing from November to March. You can start fertilizing with Espoma citrus tone starting on March 1st.
- Watering is extremely important! Water the plant as you would as if it was outside. Remember, the roots are at the bottom of that pot so you need to make sure you water the plant enough to ensure the roots can gather up that water. If you only give the plant a little each time it only goes down a few inches in the soil, which is not helping the plant.
- Remember, nothing goes back outside until after the last chance of frost, sometime around the last week or so of May.
Figs require a little different care than most citrus or houseplants. Follow these simple steps to keep your figs happy over winter.
- Let the fig tree get hit by the first frost or two.
- Once the frost has done its job, it’s time to take the remainder of the leaves off and trim up your fig tree. You basically want to make your tree look like a stumpy stick figure by trimming the branches way back.
- Next, wrap it up loosely in some burlap and place it in a cool, dark spot for the winter. Usually, an attached garage, basement, or attic works best.
- Now that your plant is ready for its long winter sleep, you will give it about 1 cup of water every month during this time. It’s enough to keep it alive but not letting it come out of dormancy.
- Sometime around mid-April slowly bring your fig tree out of hibernation. Do this by unwrapping your fig tree and bringing it to a nice cozy sunny location in your house. You can now start to water your fig tree as you would if it was outside. Your fig tree will stay in its new location until it can safely be put back outside for the summer, which will be after the last chance of frost. This is usually around the last week of May. Give or take a week or so either way.
- Once your fig tree returns to its home outside you will start fertilizing again with Espoma 5-10-5 garden food monthly. And don’t forget to add 1 cup of lime just once when you give your plant its first application of garden food. The lime will give your plant the magnesium and calcium it needs for a healthy growing season.
As always, we are here to help! If you have any questions about overwintering your plants feel free to email or call us. Happy gardening!
Can you overwinter your tropicals? The answer is yes!! If you think about it, what do you have to lose?
Here are a few of my Favorites.
Hibiscus, palms, mandevillas, bougainvillea, elephant ears, and canna lilies. To get started let’s break them down into two different categories. The tree category will be your hibiscus, palms, mandevillas, and bougainvilleas. And your bulb or tuber category, those will be the elephant ears and the canna lilies.
Let’s begin with the tree category since that’s the one I get asked about the most. When the nighttime temperatures are consistently in the mid to lower 40’s it’s time to get them ready to overwinter.
*First hose down the entire plant. *Next spray the plant with insecticidal soap and then add a systemic to the soil. This will help with any bug issues you may have going on with your plants. Now it’s time to choose what method of over-wintering is right for you. There are two different but equally effective ways.
* First is the dormant method. With this choice, you will place your tropical plant in a frost-
free garage, basement, or attic. You will water sparingly every 3 to 5 weeks. This is enough to keep the plant’s roots from drying out. It’s surviving but not thriving. That’s just what dormancy means. This method will also have the plant losing most if not all of its leaves so it takes a little more time to get it going again in the spring.
*The second way is the active growing method. This is my favorite way to over-winter. By using this method, I believe it gives your plant the best chance for a faster start in the spring by allowing the plant to retain most of, if not all of its leaves, so if you have a nice sunny spot in your home this will be the ideal place. Just water and lots of suns are what is needed to keep your plant happy. You might need to water a little more than normal during Jan and Feb, as these are the months when the heat in our homes really starts making the air much drier. So remember when your skin starts getting drier it’s time to up the water for all your plants.
* Now for the tuber category.
This one is pretty simple. For your elephant ears and canna lilies, all you have to do is carefully dig them up without causing damage to the bulbs themselves. Lay all the bulbs out on some newspaper and let dry for a few days. This gets all the moisture out of the bulbs to ensure they won’t rot during storage. Then all you do is place them in a brown paper bag with either peat moss or sawdust and then store them in a cool dark spot for the winter.
With all these overwintering ideas, you may put your tropicals back outside for the year once the treatment of cold weather has passed in the spring. We encourage you to give us a call, we will be happy to walk you through it all.
As the days get shorter it is now time to start thinking about what we need to do to over-winter our plants. While your plants have enjoyed being outside this summer they need to come in before the temperatures dip below 50 degrees.
The proper way to handle the transition is to slowly inch their way back inside, from being out in full sun to under a tree or a covered porch. This will give your plant time to acclimate slowly to the changing temperatures.
Houseplants, tropicals, and citrus are the plants that require this method. By transitioning slowly, you will help your plants in a big way. They are less likely to stress out and cause leaves to drop from your treasured plants. Before bringing them inside there are a few things you should do.
- Trim off any dead or unhealthy-looking branches. This helps the plant to direct its energy to all the parts of the plant that need it most.
- Thoroughly hose down your plant by washing off any unwanted hitch-hikers from coming inside with your plant.
- This tip is in my opinion the most important. Apply some systemic to your plant. This will help keep your plant bug-free from the bottom up. I always recommend to my customers that they should always have a spray like a neem oil or safer insect soap for the top part of your plant to kill any bugs you may see. And the systemic for the soil, for bugs you can’t see. Especially important in the over-wintering.
- And lastly, find the perfect spot for your treasured plants to vacation for the rest of the fall and winter months.
- Remember no fertilizing from November to March.
- Watering is important …water the plant as you would normally, remember the roots are at the bottom of that pot so you need to make sure you water the plant enough to ensure the roots can gather up that water. If you only give the plant a little each time it only goes down a few inches in the soil, which is not helping the plant.
Now that covers most plants. But, there is one plant that over-winters very differently.
The fruit-bearing fig tree you will over-winter completely the opposite from those plants we discussed above.
Follow these simple rules.
1)Let the fig tree get hit by the first frost or two.
2) Once the frost has done its job it’s time to take the remainder of the leaves off and trim up your fig tree. You basically want to make your tree look like a stumpy stick figure by trimming the branches way back.
3) next wrap it up loosely in some burlap and place it in a cool dark spot for the winter. Usually, an attached garage or attic works best.
4) Now that your plant is ready for its long winter sleep, you will give it about 1 cup of water every month during this time. It’s enough to keep it alive but not letting it come out of dormancy.
We are always here to help, any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to call or email us.