Moving Plants Back Inside for Autumn

The days are getting noticeably shorter and the morning temperatures have dropped enough that it's time to think about bringing any plants that spent the summer outside back indoors. Every autumn this feels slightly chaotic, and every year I tell myself I'll be more organised about it. I'm not.

The Quarantine Rule

This is the most important step and the one I almost skipped the first year I did this: any plant that has been outside must be quarantined away from your indoor collection for at least two weeks before it gets to rejoin the group.

Plants that have been outside will often have hitchhikers — eggs or larvae from spider mites, aphids, or other pests that are completely invisible at first glance. If you carry an infested plant straight back into your apartment and set it down next to your other plants, you can spread an infestation to your entire collection in days.

The bathroom is my quarantine room. I put the returning plants in there, check them thoroughly every few days, and only bring them into the main living area once I'm confident they're clean.

The Re-acclimatisation Dip

Plants that have been sitting in direct outdoor sun will also go through a period of adjustment when they come inside. Even with good grow lights, indoor light levels are significantly lower than natural summer sun. Expect a couple of dropped or yellowed leaves in the first few weeks — that's the plant shedding leaves it can no longer support with the reduced light, and it's completely normal.

I try to put returning plants near the grow lights immediately rather than somewhere dark, to make the transition as smooth as possible.

Watering Reset

Outdoor plants in summer dry out much faster than indoor plants in autumn. As soon as plants come inside, I completely reset my watering expectations for them. What needed water every two days outside might now need water once a week. Getting caught out by this is one of the most common ways to accidentally overwater your way into root rot as the season changes.