SU LMS

Low-Temperature Effects on Indoor Plants

Indoor plants, whether grown in a home or a greenhouse,

are particularly sensitive to low temperatures,

both where they are growing and during transportation

from a greenhouse or florist’s shop to a home or from

one home to another. Often, indoor plants are tropical

plants grown far away from their normal climate. Exposure

of such plants to low, not necessarily freezing, temperatures

may cause stunting, yellowing, leaf or bud

drop, and so on. Similarly, when grown indoors, even

local plants remain in a succulent vegetative state and

are completely unprepared for the stresses of low,

particularly subfreezing, temperatures. Plants near

windows or doors during cold winter days and, especially,

nights are subject to temperatures that are much

lower than those away from the window. Also, cracks

or breaks in windows or the holes of electrical outlets

on outside walls let in cold air that may injure the plants.

A drop of night temperatures below 12°C may cause

leaves and particularly flower buds of many plants to

turn yellow and drop. Exposure of indoor plants to subfreezing

temperatures for a few minutes or a few hours,

e.g., while they are carried in the trunk of a car from

the greenhouse to the house, may result in the death of

many shoots and flowers or in a sudden shock to the

plants from which they may take weeks or months to

recover completely. Such a shock is often observed on

plants that had been kept indoors and are then transplanted

in the field in the spring when temperatures

outdoors, although not freezing, are nevertheless much

lower than those in the greenhouse. Even without the

shock effect, plants growing at temperatures that are

generally near the lower — or near the upper — limit of

their normal range grow poorly and produce fewer and

smaller blossoms and fruits.

Abiotic Diseases of Plants Low Temperature effects on Indoor plants