Gadenin日本語Get the appThe shape of the year
An aralia does not have a dramatic seasonal cycle indoors, but its tolerance for interference changes a great deal through the year. In the warm months, with long days and active roots, it can take repotting, hard pruning and feeding and recover from all of them quickly. In the cold, dark part of the year it can take almost nothing, and the same operations that were routine in summer become genuine risks.
So the working rule is simple: do the disruptive jobs while it is warm and growing, and spend the cold months doing nothing but watching the watering and the temperature. Almost every schedule mistake with this plant comes from repotting, pruning or feeding at the wrong end of the year.
Season by season
The table below is the whole year in one view. Read it by conditions rather than by month, because an indoor plant responds to the light and warmth in your particular room, not to a date.
| Season | Main jobs | Watering | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early spring, as days lengthen | Inspect for pests, clean the leaves, plan any repotting | Slightly more often as growth restarts | Overwatering before the plant is actually growing |
| Late spring into early summer | Repot if needed, prune hard if needed, start feeding | Regular, when the top inch (2.5 cm) is dry | Doing two disruptive jobs in the same month |
| High summer | Pinch shoot tips to build density, feed monthly | Most frequent of the year, never waterlogged | Spider mites in hot dry air, scorch in direct sun |
| Late summer into autumn | Last feed, bring indoor plants back from outside | Begin easing off | Pests hitching a ride in from outdoors |
| Autumn as heating goes on | Move clear of radiators, set up a humidity tray | Noticeably less | Dry air, brown tips, first mite outbreak |
| Winter | Nothing disruptive: no repotting, pruning or feeding | Least of the year, let it dry more between waterings | Cold floors, drafts, wet compost, root rot |
| Late winter, days lengthening again | Inspect closely, plan the coming season's work | Still restrained until new growth is visible | Feeding or repotting too early |
The routine that runs all year
Some jobs do not belong to a season. These are the things worth doing at a fixed rhythm regardless of what the weather is doing outside.
- Check the compost before every watering Push a finger an inch (2.5 cm) into the mix. Water only if it is dry at that depth. This one habit replaces any watering schedule and it prevents the root rot that kills most aralias.
- Inspect the leaf undersides monthly Lift a branch, turn a spray of leaflets over and look at it against the light. Two minutes a month catches spider mites and scale while they are still trivial to deal with, which on this plant's fine foliage is the only realistic way to find them.
- Turn the pot a quarter every few weeks Foliage grows toward the light and an unturned plant becomes lopsided. A quarter turn is a small enough change that it does not trigger leaf drop, unlike moving the plant to a different position.
- Wipe or rinse the foliage every couple of months Dust settles into divided foliage and cuts the light reaching the leaflets. A shower rinse or a wipe with a damp cloth also knocks off early mites before they establish.
- Check the temperature at plant height in the coldest week Once a winter, measure the actual temperature where the plant stands on a cold night. If it drops below 60F (16C) the position is wrong, and finding that out in early winter is far better than in spring.
How a change of position resets the schedule
Any move, whether to a new room, a new house or back indoors after a summer outside, starts a recovery period that overrides the seasonal plan. Expect heavy leaf drop within two weeks and a bare-looking plant for six to ten weeks after that. During this window the schedule is not the normal one.
Through recovery you do less, not more: no feeding, no repotting, no pruning, no further moves, and water only when the compost is dry an inch (2.5 cm) down, which will be much less often than usual because a plant with few leaves uses little water. Return to the normal schedule when you can see new shoots extending, not before.
| Weeks since the move | What you will see | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Weeks one to two | Rapid leaf drop, sometimes most of the foliage | Nothing at all except reducing watering |
| Weeks three to six | Bare stems, no visible change | Keep warm, keep barely moist, do not intervene |
| Weeks six to ten | Buds swelling along the stems | Resume normal watering as leaves expand |
| After new growth is established | Steady extension of new shoots | Resume feeding and normal seasonal schedule |
Never combine a move with a repot. Moving a plant and repotting it in the same fortnight is the most reliable way to lose a polyscias, because the plant loses its foliage and its root function at the same time.
The record that makes next year easier
Keep one running list for this plant with dates against each entry: the day it was moved or repotted, the day heavy leaf drop began and ended, the day new shoots first appeared, each hard prune, the first and last feed of the season, and the first sighting of any pest. Note the position it was standing in each time.
After one full year this list is more useful than any general advice, because it is calibrated to your rooms. It tells you when mites arrive in your house, how long your plant takes to releaf, and which position it grew best in. In practice the two dates people most wish they had written down are the day the leaf drop started and the day the first new shoot appeared, because together they settle the question of whether the plant is recovering on schedule.