Taking advantage of the rain to water the plant is the idea that gets in the mind of anybody who takes gardening as a hobby. It seems like a nice idea to let the rainstorm take care of the plant, this will save you the work of watering the plants by yourself and save the water too.

But can you leave your houseplants outside in the rain? On paper, this route looks promising, but other things come with this approach that you should know about before practicing.

Can You Put House Plants Outside In the Rain? Yes, you can generally, house plants can tolerate being soaked with rainwater because rainwater has more oxygen than regular tap water. If you put them outside in the rain but be aware of the wind and temperatures they can damage your plants

Is Rain Good For The Plants?

Yes because the rainwater comes straight out of the clouds, and it brings plenty of benefits for the plant, like oxygen and nutrients. Putting the plant in the rain will help them take a bath, so all the dust on the leaves will be washed off in an instant.

If it is raining at a decent level, then you leave the plant outside your house, but a heavy downpour can ruin your delicate leaves.

Rainwater is different from the tap water that you use in your household. When your plant stays outside in the rain, the salts and other minerals of your tap water will get dissolved by the rainwater.

Unlike tap water, rainwater is naturally soft in tone it will help you flush out salt and calcium carbonate out for your soil. Rainwater will also help the plant to clear out its stomata or respiratory pores.

This also helps improve the plant’s carbon dioxide intake and nutrients that are required for the process of photosynthesis. When all the respiratory pores get cleared out, the plant will grow healthier and better.

That is why the plants that live outside seem to glow after a short period of rain. When they get a ray of sun on them, it is a sight to see.

What to Avoid?

There are things about the rain that you need to pay a lot of attention to if they get too much water it can be damaging to the plants.

First, you need to ask yourself, do your plants need too much water? Most of the houseplants people have in their home will do fine after the regular watering.

These plants go through a dry and wet cycle that doesn’t need additional water sources to keep them wetter. The dry and wet cycle that these houseplants go through will keep the soil dry for a bit then watering the plant will help start the cycle over again.

But all the houseplants can endure having too much water in the soil, even if they are already wet. Rainwater has different compounds that can help the plant to grow faster.

For example, rainwater carries more oxygen than the water that comes out of the tap. In a colder climate, make sure to pull out the plants from outside, the rain in these areas can get very cold real fast.

The long overnight hours of winter will do a lot of damage to the plants, the lower temperature is what makes the cold weather rain harmful for the plant.

The Severity Of The Wind

Another part of the rain that people forget is the wind. Wind will be a huge part of the rain, and it will knock over your plants and damage the plants in an instant if one is not careful.

No one can predict the severity of the rain by the look of it. Sometimes the rain will happen at a softer tone, and other times it will leave a heavy downpour on the street. The tone of the rain will affect the plant also.

If you have plants indoors, taking them out in the windy rain can do more harm than good to their structure. Because the indoor plants have little to no tolerance to handle the windy rain.

If you have your houseplants in costly planters or containers, then the chances of them falling over rise significantly in the rain.

If you want to water your plants with rainwater. Then it is better to fill up a bucket with the rainwater and then bring it into your house to water the plants.

Leaving them outside might cause a great deal of damage in a harsher rainy season. If you leave any of your indoor plants outside, after the rain ends, if you leave the plants outside for too long, then they might start taking damage from the sunlight.

This is because the indoor plants have no endurance power to handle the sunlight after a big rain. The sun can damage the leaves, so it is better to bring them back into the house.

What to Do Afterward?

If you left the plants for too long outside, then you need to perform a little bit of check before you put them back in the same place. Rain also brings various types of bugs to the plants, bugs such as slugs, snails, caterpillars, and different pests.

If you leave your plants with these bugs, then you will quickly infest the rest of the plants in your house. It will take 3-5 days for the bugs to infest all the houseplants in your place.

And the last thing you need to do is to protect your dogs or kids from smelling the indoor plants when they are outside. If any of your houseplants’ earrings irritate toxic leaves, it won’t go well with the dog or the toddler.

Conclusion

In short, yes you can put your houseplants outside in the rain, but you have to make sure it is not a heavy downpour, or it will mess up the plant for worse.

Rainwater carries more value in it than regular tap water, but that doesn’t mean you leave the plant outside to get all the good water that they possibly can.

The houseplant has little to no tolerance for the outside environment. If you leave it for a longer time, the houseplants might catch various other things that will do more harm than good for their system.