Mint Plant Dying - Why & How to Save it - Watering & Light

Are you worried about your dying mint plant? Isn’t it heartbreaking to see your plant drooping? Don't worry because I will help you get your plant healthy again if you are facing such situations. Well, I am here, my friend, to share some tips with you, which will help you with your dying mint plant, as those helped me with mine.

Mint is a beautiful herb with lush green leaves and is a hardy grower. It spreads very fastly and is a great runner. It is effortless to grow mint, yet for its survival, you need to keep checking its nutritional values and other optimum conditions, which, if not properly maintained, can cause the dropping of mint plants and even, in some cases, death.

How to Revive a Dying Mint Plant

If you have a mint plant in your garden and it isn't growing properly, and you are observing leaves shedding, discoloration, and dropping, don't worry because I will tell you methods to get rid of these issues and save your plant within no time.

Why Do Mint Plants Die? & What to Do?

There are several important factors that are required for the survival of mint plants, and if you are not taking care of these factors properly, your herb can show drooping or even can die. Mint plants have beautiful green leaves, and you can easily observe discoloration and change of texture when under stressful conditions.

There can be multiple reasons that can be responsible for the drooping mint plant. Although it isn't a sensitive herb, yet, its exposure to stressful conditions can cause damage to it. Some of the major reasons for this process are described as under.

Heat Stress

Mint plants usually need early morning sun for their growth and 5 hours of the sun are maximum for it. When the mint plant is exposed to the bright sunlight of high temperature, you will quickly observe wilting in the plant. Mint likes to be under shade as it works well for it, but the prolonged presence of the mint in the sun can cause heat stress.

You can easily overcome heat stress if you observe it so you don't need to get worried about it. For fixing this, place the pot for your mint plant under some shady tree or indoors when it can have just a few hours of the early morning sun. Your plant will thrive in the shady area and will be happy, which you will observe through the development of green fresh leaves. Place your pot at a moderate temperature; too high or too low temperature can damage the plant.

Underwatering

Although mint is a hardcore herb and usually survives without any care, underwatering or water scarcity can be the cause of your dying mint plant. Provision of less water to the plant is a potential reason that can cause drying of the plant.

In the lack of water, the plant will be unable to manage its proper nutritional supply and cause discoloration of the leaves. And if not watered on time, the poor mint plant will no longer survive due to dryness and unavailability of moisture.

You can easily correct the underwatering issue by watering your plant on time and providing it with enough moisture that it could be able to survive. If you are busy and it isn't easy to check daily, you can put your pot in a basin or a tray and fill it half with water. The water will be easily transferred to the roots of your mint plant through a hole present at the bottom of your mint pot. Keep a check on the basin's water level once in a while, and your plant will thrive within no time.

Overwatering

Just like underwatering, overwatering can also be damaging for your plant. Increasing the water content in the pot will cause clogging, and water will be unable to drain out. Excess water in the roots can cause root mint rot and be responsible for various fungal infections in the plant. Airy soil is required by the plant for its proper growth, which won't be managed through overwatering as the environment will become soggy. It will start weakening the stem, and you will also observe discoloration.

To overcome the watering issues, keep in mind that you don't need to water way too much. Stop watering if you smell rust from the pot. The size of the pot should be bigger, and it should have a drainage system that will keep the soil from becoming soggy. You can water them once a day during summers, but in winters, you can do that after 2-3 days as the moisture level is low in summers but high in winters.

Size of the Pot

While growing mint in a pot, make sure that the pot or a container in which you are growing mint is enough for the roots to spread; the too congested and small pot will suffocate the roots of the plant and will cause wilting or dying of the mint plant.

While selecting the pot for growing mint, make sure that there is at least one drainage hole in the pot, as the hole will provide dry conditions for the roots to grow and remove the excess water from the pot, which will be helpful in the effective growth of the mint plants.

Temperature

Temperature plays a vital role in damaging mint plants. Too much hot and too cold weather is not suitable for mint plants and will cause the death of the plant. Extreme sunny days can give heat burns to the leaves, whereas winters can cause frostbite. In the end, the mint plant will be unable to grow or function, which will lead to death.

To prevent this, make sure to keep your mint plant at moderate temperatures. You can place the pot indoors as the weather and conditions are better inside than the harsh climate outside, and it will be more reliable for the plant and help it with better growth.

Lack of Nutrition

Mint plants, just like other plants, need proper nutritive soil for their exponential growth. They need nitrogen, phosphorus, and an effective potassium supply as well. A soil with less amount of nutritive media will limit the growth of mint.

You can fix nutritive issues by providing fertilizers to the mint pot or changing the soil after a few weeks. Also, you can provide slow-release fertilizers granules, which will have a long-term effect and save your plant from dying. You can also add organic fertilizers instead of chemical fertilizers as well.

Fungal Diseases

If you are watering the plant way too much, it will make the soil soggy, and as a result, it will provide perfect media for fungus to grow, which is highly damaging for your mint plant and will be responsible for damage and drooping. You can easily observe this fungal disease through the rotting smell from the pot.

For effective control of fungal disease, you should manage the watering of your mint plant and if the fungal disease is of leaves, make sure to trim the leaves and manage good hygiene of the plant. Sterilizing your cutting tool tries to take a runner and grow it in a new medium and soil while avoiding the previous soil to use again for growth purposes.

How to Keep a Mint Plant Alive?

You can keep your mint plant alive by carefully taking care of the following steps.

• Preventing overwatering and underwatering the mint plant
• Please protect it from severe temperature
• Providing proper nutritive media
• Keeping the pot clean and maintain proper hygiene
• Protecting it from fungal diseases by avoiding excessive watering
• Giving a good-sized pot for growth shouldn't be too big or small as a small pot will cause suffocation, while a large pot will cause quick drainage of water giving no or very less water to the plant's roots.

Changing Color

Colour changing is mostly seen in mint leaves due to under and over watering habits. It will usually turn the leaves of the mint brown and give them a scaly appearance. You can manage the browning issues of the mint plant in the earlier stages, as later on, and it will be responsible for the death of the mint plant.

The brown color of the leaves represents the stress the mint plant is going through. If you are a good caretaker and observe these browning on leaves, precautions should be taken quickly as the damaging effects will increase over time.

Drooping

Drooping in the mint plant is usually seen because of stressful conditions, and it shows a plant sick and dying; at this point, if drastic action is not taken, you can certainly lose your mint plant. It is the last effort you can make by providing optimum conditions discussed above for its growth.

FAQs

Conclusion

If you were worried about your dying mint plant and were looking for an effective method to cure it, I am glad that you came across this article and learned about the methods that will help you revive your damaged plant. I hope you will find this article helpful and will be able to save your mint plant.