Are you struggling to find the right temperature for your plants? Here is a guide on the essential temperature ranges for indoor plants!
Becoming a gardener means realizing that, just like us, plants have their own temperature preferences. For your indoor plants to really thrive, it’s important to provide them with the right temperature, along with other necessary conditions. But keep in mind that not all plants are the same—different species have different temperature needs, which can make things a bit confusing. To help you out, here’s a straightforward guide on the ideal temperature ranges for various types of indoor plants.
Essential Temperature Ranges for Indoor Plants
1) Tropical and Foliage Indoor Plants
Most indoor plants, like Pothos, Peperomia, Philodendron, and other tropical varieties, thrive in temperatures ranging from 65°F to 75°F (18°C to 24°C). These plants do best in bright, indirect sunlight rather than direct exposure, which can scorch their leaves. While they enjoy these general temperature ranges, it’s important to consider the subtle differences between daytime and nighttime temperatures for optimal growth.
During the day, aim to keep the temperature between 70°F and 80°F (21°C to 26°C), while at night, it’s ideal to let it drop to between 60°F and 68°F (15°C to 20°C). This slight fluctuation mimics their natural environment, promoting stronger growth and more vibrant foliage.
As seasons change, temperature management becomes even more important When temperatures rise during summer, your indoor plants can suffer from heat stress, leading to dehydration and wilting leaves. On the flip side, if temperatures drop below 50°F (10°C), especially during winter, tropical plants are at risk of frost damage, slowed growth, or even dormancy. They are particularly vulnerable to cold drafts from windows, doors, or vents, which can cause leaf drop and a spindly appearance.
To keep your plants happy and healthy, maintain consistent temperatures by keeping them away from heating vents, air conditioners, and other sources of drafts.
2) Succulents and Cacti
Succulents, being drought-tolerant plants that grow naturally in arid regions, are better adapted to higher temperatures and prefer them, even indoors. So, keep the temperature range between 60°F and 80°F (15°C to 26°C). Some succulents can even tolerate temperatures as low as 40°F(4°C) or as high as 90°F (32°C).
Since succulents can sometimes change colors, gardeners can sometimes use extreme temperature fluctuations to “stress” their plants into showcasing those beautiful hues. This happens when you reduce watering your succulents and provide lower nighttime temperatures of around 40°F(4°C), just above freezing temperatures. However, beware that temperatures lower than that or higher than 90°F (32°C) can cause severe damage to your succulents, like sunburn on leaves and root damage.
Cacti are native to desert regions where temperatures fluctuate greatly between the day and night. However, if you grow cacti indoors, you should provide them with a temperature range between 70°F (21°C) and 90°F (32°C) during the day and cooler temperatures between 55°F to 60°F (12°C to 15°C) at night. These temperatures will also help flowering cactus species bloom.
3) Indoor Flowering Plants
While some flowering plants do like the same daytime temperature range as you would provide to foliage plants, most prefer temperatures that are a tad higher. Temperatures between 70°F and 80°F (21°C to 26°C)during the daytime and lower temperatures like 60°F to 65°F (15°C to 18°C) at night help your indoor flowering plant recover from moisture loss while brightening up the flower colors and prolonging flower life.
Not meeting the above temperature range and subjecting your flowering beauties to excessively high or low temperatures would cause stunted growth, a weak, wilted appearance, and plant stress, which ultimately will also lead to foliage damage and leaf drop. To nail the nighttime temperatures, a rule of thumb you could follow is to keep them 10 to 15 degrees lower than daytime temperatures. This also helps induce physiological recovery.
You would probably already know that flowering plants are extremely sensitive to temperature fluctuations. So, just like every other indoor plant, you must ensure that you keep these beauties away from hot and cold vents from radiators, air conditioners, etc.
4) Herbs
When growing herbs indoors, it is generally ideal to maintain a room temperature range of about 65°F to 70°F (18°C to 21°C) during the daytime. They can handle nighttime temperatures of 55°F to 60°F (12°C to 15°C). Most herbs can even survive temperatures from the mid to low 40s, but quite a lot of them cannot (for example, basil cannot survive temperatures lower than 50°F or 10°C.
Some herbs are warm-growing species, with their optimal growth temperature being 84°F or 28°C. There are also cooler to moderate-growing species that survive well in the 65°F to 70°F range, as aforementioned. The former includes species like sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum), lemon basil (O. x citriodorum), and holy basil (O. tenuiflorum). In contrast, the latter includes species like dill (Anethum graveolens), flat-leaf parsley (Petroselinum crispum), and cilantro (Coriandrum sativum).
Temperature Requirements for Specific Indoor Plants
Following the temperature ranges given above, you are sure to enjoy the best growth for all your indoor plants (provided you nail all the other growing conditions as well). However, some plants have some more demands when it comes to their temperature requirements. Here is a list of the temperature requirements for some specific plants:
- Anthuriums, with their bright, colorful spathes, thrive best in environments with temperatures above 65°F (18°C) and may not survive cooler ones. Alternatively, Dipladenia is a more versatile indoor plant that survives quite well in a temperature range of 50°F to 75°F, which is between 10°C and 24°C. Of course, it is still quite vulnerable to extremely low temperatures.
- Many plant lovers love the Yucca palm, as it is quite tolerant of indoor temperature conditions and thrives in temperatures between 60°F and 80°F (15°C and 27°C). On the other hand, the ZZ plant does not do well in temperatures below 65°F (18°C) and/or higher than 75°F (24°C).
- Tropical species of Euphorbia and Lithops prefer a temperature range of at least 50-60°F (10°C to 15°C).
Of course, this list is not exhaustive, and you will need to perform in-depth research on the specific indoor plants that you are planning on growing. Besides boosting your plant’s growth and helping it look the best, monitoring and regulating the temperature indoors according to the specific needs of the plants also improves air quality.
