Wet and soggy... My heart breaks down with rotten roots

It is always hard to keep a healthy plant during the winter time. There are many reasons but we can categorise ultimately three things that make plants weak and even sick and die.

1) Low temperature

2) Less sunshine

3) Too wet conditions

Last time we talked about 2) Less sunshine. Please check 1) Low temperature as well if you came to this page first

I will talk about 3) Too wet conditions here.

In SkyOceanUK farm, we are growing succulents and caudex plants mainly. They don't need much water, rather they are not so tolerant to the wet conditions. There are some exceptions like Haworthia species that are drain tolerant, and I am actually growing them in a glass (I am using special cray for suppressing bacterial growth, and I do not recommend just growing plants with soils in a glass or a cup without any holes in the bottom!!). In the UK and northern Europe, Winter is wet and rainy (snowy). Succulent plants can survive in cold temperatures even below 0 degrees when they are dry enough. In other words, a wet pot will cause damage easily when the temperature drops. For example, some of the Echeveria species can survive below -10 if the pot was not containing water. Let's think about the solutions. A) Watering in the morning and letting them dry during the day. Temperature drops in the night most of the day, and better not to water in the evening. The early gardeners catch the healthy plants! B) Bring plants under the eaves, or somewhere with a roof. It is ok to bring them in the store room for a short term but please remember, they need sunshine as much as they can for their health.

C) Bring inside, possibly close to the window to secure light, or you can put plants light to add some lighting to them. Please see more details in 2) Less sunshine. And you have to water them if it is completely indoor. They need water every week as the inside of the house is very dry because of heating.

I was talking about winter techniques for healthy plant growth. But day is becoming longer little by little, that means we are close to spring! I will talk more about the preparation for spring indoor and outdoor.