If your geranium is exhibiting signs of declining overall health, there is most likely an environmental factor that is causing it stress. The first step in saving your dying geranium is to correctly diagnose the problem. This will make treatment more seamless and effective.
The most common reasons your geranium may be dying are humidity, overwatering, too much fertilizer, disease, pests, not enough fertilizer, cold temperatures and insufficient light.
In this article, we will discuss the possible reasons your geraniums are dying and how to save them.
Why are my geraniums dying?
Humidity
If a geranium is exposed to high humidity levels, it can get rust, which can be very destructive to the plant. The condition is exacerbated when insufficient space is allowed between the plants. The high humidity and lack of air circulation between the plants will result in rust appearing on the bottom of the leaves. You will notice yellow spots, which will turn brown after a while. Soon enough, the leaves will fall off the stem.
You need to act fast once you spot the signs of rust on your geraniums, because it spreads very quickly.
In order to avoid rust in the first place, check the leaves of the seedlings when you are choosing which plants to buy from a nursery.
If you see rust spots under the leaves of the geraniums in your garden, remove all the affected leaves and dispose of them properly. Fumigate your flowers and try to decrease the humidity around your plants.
Overwatering
If you are a newbie plant owner, you may be a bit overzealous when it comes to watering your plant initially. Remember that giving your plant too much water can do more harm than good. The most severe outcomes of overwatering are stem rot and root rot.
If your geranium is overwatered, the stem will take in and retain more water than it should, and you might not even be aware of the ill effects in the early stages of overwatering.
Rot starts in the plant’s roots when they drown in waterlogged soil. If the roots are always soaking in soggy soil with no time to dry out between waterings, this will cause them to drown and then die. The dead roots are susceptible to opportunistic pathogens which infect them and cause the rot. Steadily, the rot will make its way upward toward the stem until the rest of the plant becomes affected. Before you know it, the entire plant has rotted and turned black. By this time, it will be too late for the plant and it can no longer be saved.
If you are able to catch the signs of overwatering early, you can save the plant by uprooting it from the pot or the ground and checking the roots. If there are brown or black roots, remove them using sterile scissors. Spray the remaining healthy roots with fungicide before letting the roots dry out for a few hours on a tray lined with a paper towel. Then, replant the geranium in a pot with drainage holes at the bottom, using fresh soil that is well-draining.
Avoid root rot by knowing how to water your geraniums properly. Check the soil before watering to see if it is dry. If the top inch of soil is dry to the touch, water the plant, but if the soil is still moist, wait one or two days before checking the soil again.
Too much fertilizer
Giving your geraniums a little fertilizer is fine, but giving them too much can lead to the plants’ death. These plants do not even really need fertilizer if they are planted in nutrient-rich soil.
When you apply too much fertilizer to the ground around the geraniums, it can kill the microorganisms that help the geraniums, which can then alter the soil’s pH. The change in pH can greatly affect the development of the root system. Because of this, the plant is unable to absorb nutrients properly and will die.
The toxicity brought on by too much fertilizer can also cause the plant’s leaves to turn yellow or brown.
Disease
Geraniums can be infected with both fungal and bacterial diseases. These infections can appear out of the blue, seemingly overnight, and you should always keep an eye out for changes in your geraniums so that you can catch any infection in its early stages while minimal damage has been done.
The most common signs of diseases in geraniums are the drying and shriveling of the stem, leaves and flowers, spots and splotches on both sides of the leaves, and discoloration of the foliage.
Bacterial infections in geraniums are spread via infected pruning tools, soil and water-borne pathogens and insects.
A common disease affecting geraniums is leaf blight, which will cause the leaves to turn yellow and wilt. A geranium with leaf blight will have a far greater number of dead leaves than usual, which is an indication that the geranium is dying.
The disease eats at the leaf’s veins and affects the plant’s photosynthesis process.
Save the plant by removing any affected leaves and dispose of them properly to avoid the spread of infection.
Avoid planting any new geraniums in the soil before you treat it. You can opt to plant blight-resistant plants for the time being.
Pests
One of the most common pests to attack geraniums is the budworm. The budworm is a caterpillar that attacks the unopened buds of the geranium. It will then eat the bud from the inside out. You will realize that you have budworms when the flower petals have holes in them once they bloom.
Prevent the spread of the budworms by removing the affected buds. These buds will have brown specks and tiny holes.
You can spray the affected plants with Bacillus thuringiensis. These bacteria will kill the budworms when they are ingested within a few days.
Not enough fertilizer
When your geranium is not fertilized enough, the edges of the lower leaves will become yellow. If this happens, feed your geraniums every two weeks until the symptoms of underfeeding disappear.
Cold temperatures
If the plant is placed outside during the evenings, the leaves may turn red because of the sudden chill of the night. Try not to place the plant outside at night when the temperatures are below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Not enough light
Your geraniums will become spindly if they do not get enough light. When a plant gets too little light, it will not produce as many flowers as those that get sufficient light.
You can remedy this by placing the plant in a spot where it will be able to get sufficient light throughout the day.
Conclusion
Your geranium is dying because there is an environmental factor causing it stress. The first step in saving the plant is correctly identifying the reason it is dying in the first place.
The most common causes of a dying geranium are humidity, overwatering, too much fertilizer, disease, pests, not enough fertilizer, cold temperatures and insufficient light.
As long as you provide the plants with their most basic cultural needs, your geraniums should have no problem growing and thriving.
Image: istockphoto.com / Iva Vagnerova