Overwintering Plants Indoors

[beerfish]

I'm starting to think about winter, and one of my questions is what to do with my plants. My plant list is as follows:

Hardy water lilies
Plantains
Cattails
Water Lettuce
Water Hyacinth
A couple of reed grasses I can't remember the names of

I'm in NJ, so we get pretty cold winters, and I'm trying to figure out what will survive and what won't, and if I can bring anything inside and put it in a bin in the basement (with a metal halide / T5 light) to keep it alive over the winter.

In either case, what do I need to start thinking about with these and when?

 

[morewater]

Hardy water lilies and the cat tails can stay in the pond over the winter. Just cut them down to nothing. The water lettuce and hyacinths are disposable in my opinion. They're cheap to replace come Spring. You'll probably spend more on hydro and a T5 light than you will on replacement plants.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Hardy waterliles and cattails should be just fine left outside, mine were. Reed grasses would probably be fine too, though I have no experience with them.

Water Lettuce and Hyacinth, from what I've heard, are nearly impossible to keep alive inside. I struggled to keep them alive during summer so I've never gotten to that point to bring them in.

 

[callingcolleen1]

yes, the hardy plants can be left in the pond and chuck out the lettuce and hyacinth. One year I did keep small little tiny heads of water lettuce in a tin bowl with some duck weed and had it growing in a north window over the winter. I did get small little baby water lettuce that did multiply nice in that little tin bowl....

 

[beerfish]

I have a small aquaponics system indoors with a light I used to use on my reef tank (MH/T5) already running, so it wouldn't require any real effort to toss the plants in there. Since it seems like I don't need to save anything other than the lettuce and hyacinth from the cold, I may try bringing a couple of them in and just tossing them on top of the aquaponics fish tank. I don't imagine it will hurt anything, and worst case scenario, they die and I buy new ones in the spring.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Sbenson11]

No harm in trying people have certainly done it. I am in the greenhouse business so I just overwinter them in one of the greenhouses that is heated during the winter. However even then I have a job to keep the water lettuce alive during our cold winters. The water Hyacinths do fine.

Steve

 

[topofthehill1]

I am in NJ too. At some point your water lettuce will make very small pieces of water lettuce. I have overwintered them just fine in the basement. However they never really made it in the springtime. If you are going to try it then try the smallest pieces you can.

 

[beerfish]

Hmmmm... Maybe I'll try a glass bowl on the dining room table with one or two.

They're not expensive, and it may seem dumb to try to save them, but I just can't see letting them die if I can try to save them in existing indoor tanks or a nice looking bowl.

 

[morewater]

As a rule, I don't like to bring outdoor plants indoors......I don't need a potential insect infestation inside the home.

Just me.......

 

[addy1]

I don't have the time or desire to mess with tropicals, don't even bother with them now in the pond. If you don't survive the winter you die is my rule (plants that is). Did it briefly with some tropical lilies, they survived the winter, but never really took off over summer. So sticking with hardies.

 

[beerfish]

I'm not too concerned with bringing outdoor plants inside. We have some potted plants that go out on the patio during the warmer months, so I'm ok with bringing in a few more. lol

Addy, I'll probably get to that point too, but now I'm like a kid in a candy store with all the neat plants out there!

 

[addy1]

The first winter, I hauled in pots of tropicals, lilies, different plants, bog plants. Keeping them wet, keeping the bugs down, the smell of old stale water, pita, the next winter I kept less in the house, still a pita. They survived the winter then died when I put them out and we had a real bad cold snap, killed them. The tropical lilies never took off well.

So Hardy only is my rule and if the hardy does not survive it does not get replaced.

I sort of like the down time of winter, no running water to worry about, no plants to groom, no weeds to pull.
Even the bees are less work, sort of.