Find out why it’s really important to keep plants away from forced air heating vents. Dry air blowing on your plants will desiccate the leaves, which will cause the plant to become thirsty, yet the soil remains wet. That will cause root rot. (This also applies to air-conditioning).
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Today I’m going to give you a quick tip about growing plants during the winter months when you have forced air heating on. It’s important to keep plants out of the draft of the forced air heating, and actually, this also applies to when you’re air conditioning your home as well. This is because forced air heating and cooling dries the air.
If you have your plant in the pathway of the air current, you will dry out your plant leaves. When you dry out your plant leaves, the plant becomes thirsty, but the soil is still wet. If you’ve watched some of my videos, you know that a lot of really wet soil too often is going to lead to root rot, so you want to avoid that at all costs.
When the forced air hits these delicate leaves, it affects the stomata on the bottom and top of the leaves. The stomata are the breathing pores of the plant and also where plants emit moisture. By drying out the leaves, the plant becomes thirsty while the soil remains wet. During winter months, plants aren’t cycling water as quickly as they do the rest of the year, creating a problematic situation.
Besides drying out the leaves, forced air heating and cooling also lowers humidity. Remember that most houseplants are tropical plants that love humidity. Lowering the humidity can cause brown leaf tips, crusty leaf edges, and dried-out leaves. Combined with wet soil in wintertime, this creates a recipe for disaster.
The easy way to avoid these issues is to keep plants out of the direct line of fire in terms of forced air heating or air conditioning.
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