Switching over to the early winter watering schedule

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If you've ever tried to grow tropical plants indoors, you know that plants and humans don't ever agree on what's comfortable. High temperatures and high humidity is what they like, but moderate temperatures and low humidity is what we like. So, while it's gorgeous out there now in November for us humans playing golf, etc., it's already getting miserable for your tropical plants.

If you've engaged in athletic events early in the winter mornings in Phoenix, you know that it can get cold. Right now it's 45 degrees (F) at 8 am on November 6th. And this cold, more than the heat of the summer, is what your tropical plants don't like. There is one thing that you can do to help them, which is to reduce the amount of water that they get, starting now.

I have adjusted my misting system to come on only once a day, and the watering system is cut back to every two days. Where I have small annuals and bulbs I can hand-water, but they shouldn't need it.

There are a couple of reasons for cutting down your watering schedule as winter approaches. The most important one is that the ground just isn't as hot, and the water that you put there will stay. And that's a good thing now. But by December and January that water will puddle up at your plant's feet and encourage root rot. And since the roots aren't growing in the winter, putting water on them is just a waste of water, anyway. Here in the Sonoran Desert we usually get gentle winter rains, so by December you can totally turn off your watering system. If you have grass (and why do you, by the way?), you have to continue to water heavily all winter, so this advice doesn't apply.

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