8.Bringing in Plants

You have a greenhouse full of vegetables started for the winter season, and you are bringing additional plants into the greenhouse for the winter. Will the two get along or will you find that the bugs and pesky critters will kill off your winter vegetables? There are a couple of things to discuss here when you are bringing in plants when you have plants that are being raised in the greenhouse.

When you are bringing in new plants to the greenhouse, it is in your best interest to spray them down with soapy water. Just a tiny tablespoon of dish liquid to a gallon of water is the trick, put it in a sprayer and mist over the plants you are bringing indoors to get rid of pests. If you see pests that are not responding to the soap, just pick them off or consider putting the plant back into your outdoor garden for the winter months anyway.

Some plants can appear ‘tired’ when you bring it into the greenhouse. Just cut back about one third to one half of their leaves. This will allow the roots to get back on track and it will save the plant from using extra energy to feed the leaves when it need to get ‘settled’ in it’s pot for the winter. Don’t cut more than about one half of the leaves off or your will hurt the plants survival rate.

If the plant has been out in the forty degree weather for two or three weeks, only place it in the greenhouse overnight for the first two or three days, and then you can start leaving it in the greenhouse all night and day. Sometimes the plants will start to become dormant and the shock of coming in to a fifty-degree greenhouse will cause them to die off. There are many plants that may appear to die off no matter what you do, but if you give it a few weeks they will come back just fine.

Don’t forget that if you just took the plant out of the ground, you may need to give it extra water for the first few weeks while it gets used to its pot and its conditions. While it isn’t much of a shock for a mid size plant, the smaller the plant, the unstable its conditions are.

When your greenhouse is full of your winter vegetables and your favorite flowers, you know all of that work paid off it is a great feeling.

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