I can’t stress enough that it is completely natural and normal to lose plants and or watch plants suffer a bit during the wintertime. Here on the northeast coast in New York, I’m fighting against polar vortexes, reduced light exposure and lack of natural humidity. So I understand first hand all about the winter blues. Don’t feel too hopeless as you stare into the crunchy spots on your Anthurium leaves I have one of my favorite tricks to help struggling plants.

If you’ve been following me on Instagram for a while you might have seen me mention my “Healing Box of Healing”

It’s a really simple trick that I use for some of the tropical plants I grow in the apartment. It’s also perfect during the winter months when plants are in desperate need of some heat and humidity. I call it the “Healing Box” and all it is is a clear container with a cover and some box grow lights. It’s basically the dome theory but bigger and it allows me to care and help multiple plants at once. The high humidity and accumulated heat have helped a lot of my struggling plants regrow. With the help of the grow lights, it makes it a lot easier to keep plants happy in there. The only maintenance is to remember to air it out at least once a week and cleaning off dead leaves.

You could use a good clamp light or box grow light. I’ll link the ones I use.

Materials:

Clear Plastic Container

Lid

Clamp Grow Lights

Box Grow Lights

You can check out more of my recommendations over at my Amazon Storefront

This has notoriously saved so many of my anthuriums that I’ve had to restart and regrow. My box is majority anthurium and alocasia.

Besides using it to help regrow plants, I also love using the box to help encourage growth in philodendron nubs and to help acclimate delicate plants that have been shipped to me.

Along with just opening the box, I also like to put my mini fan above the box to help create nice airflow!

You might experience some decay here and there which is totally normal. You just want to be sure to clean off any decay or rot you see. You might also spot soil mites, which is common as they are attracted to and will munch on decaying matter. I’ve never really had any issues with them and they’ve always just washed off when I rinse the plant and give the plants fresh medium.

Once a plant seems to have established a good root system and decent leaf growth, it’s usually time for it to come out of the box. When transitioning plants out of the box there are a few tricks I like to do to help it acclimate. First, when I know I need to take something out of the box I’ll open the box more throughout the week letting it air and even dry a bit. I’ll do that for ideally 2 weeks. When I pull the plant out to give it fresh medium. I like to add my soil mix but with some sphagnum moss. While it’s acclimating to the apartment outside the box, I do like to keep it on the more moist side so I might water it a bit more throughout the week and keep it close to a humidifier. These plants that are transitioning out of the healing box will most likely need a little more attention just to be sure its doing ok. Worst case if it’s not, you can always pop it back in the box and wait for the plant to establish itself even more. I find the more mature the plant it the more resilient it gets. I find that better root system usually means it can withstand a bit more transition shock.

Another great trick is to fertilize it the first and third waterings to help encourage growth in its new space, I love using -

Superthrive

Fox Farm; Grow Big

Noot