Question
Dear Darlene

I hope you can help me. I just repotted all my house plants and gave them a good watering. I have since been told that this is not the right thing to do in winter. Is there anything I can do to minimise any damage I might have caused them? The plants are peace lillies, yuccas, bay trees and ferns.

I will be devastated if they all die so any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks.

Answer
Esther,

Whoever advised you it was a mistake was correct. Plants are semi dormant now when the days are shorter. The roots are not growing because of the shorter days. They will not start growing until the days start getting longer. The ideal time to repot is between April 1st and July 15th.

When you repot you should move each plant to a pot with a diameter 2 inches larger than the pot that you removed it from. The pot should always have a drainage hole with a drain tray under it.

If you followed those rules and did not put them in too large of pots and you did not tear the roots apart a lot the plants should not go into shock from the winter repotting. Just be very careful not to overwater them and do not leave water standing in any of the drain trays or you will risk the roots rotting.

If you did disturb the roots and replaced all the soil then the plants lost a lot of roots and they need to regrow. This time of year they will not readily to that so you will need to give them additional light, preferably flourescent and keep it on 14 hours a day to fool the plants into thinking it is a longer day. Also give them half strength doses of a fertilizer with a higher middle #. That will encourage root growth.  

If you can't provide the additional light you need to be very careful not to water the plants until they are dry, especially the yucca, peace lilly and bay tree. Those can all go 2 weeks between waterings especially in the winter. They need to dry out well between waterings.  Theey hate being kept wet.  The yucca and bay tree need as much sun as you can possibly give them, a southern exposure is best. The peace lilly likes an eastern exposure and the fern likes east or north. If you have more questions write again. Good luck.

Darlene