When you see leaves of your plant curling – whether upwards or downwards, your plants are trying to tell you something! The first thing that should come in your mind is: the PLANT IS IN STRESS. Stress is more commonly seen in younger plants than the more established or mature plants.
Now, let’s look into different patterns of leaf curls with scientific concepts and reasons for each of these and solutions or remedies to be applied to treat the problem of leaf curl.
- Leaf margins curling downwards and drooping down – like wilting: The Common Cause of this is Under watering and excessive heat like in summer season. This indicates your plant is sad and stressed and requires Attention! This is a sign of too much heat and under watering. The solution is pretty simple! – Just water the plant thoroughly and you will see them come back to normal in few minutes.
- Leaf tips or margins curling upwards and folding. Upwards curling occurs because of environmental problems rather than nutrient problems. This could either be due to heat stress or wind stress. Leaves Curl upwards or fold upwards in an attempt to stop exposing or reducing the surface of the leaf for photosynthesis and reducing transpiration and hence overall dehydration. But one problem here is once it curls upwards, it’s not going to uncurl or come back to its normal shape. If the whole plant is suffering from this, you need to worry. But if it’s only few leaves curling at lower portions of the plant, not to worry, if younger shoots are healthy. What’s the Remedy for this leaf curl? Just shift the plant under a shade net away from too much hot sun and mist the plant with some water once or twice a day.
- Leaves curling down or drooping underneath itself with some yellowing. – A Sign of Over watering and an early indication of root rot. To save the plant, take out the root ball and repot in a fully dry soil for immediate solution and do not water for at least 2 days. You can also add some antifungal into the potting mix or in water.
- Leaf Curling with wrinkling and unhealthy look with patchy or punctate yellow spots or specks and visible pests like aphids, mealy bugs, etc – obviously indicate – pest attack is the cause of curling. Spraying neem oil weekly once will help in prevention as well as treatment.
- Leaf Curl Virus also needs a special mention. This commonly affects plants like peppers and tomatoes. If you come across this leaf curl and you have ruled out the other causes of leaf curl as discussed, then you should dispose the plant to prevent spread to other plants nearby.
- Nutritional deficiency can cause Leaf Curling. The Fact you must remember is: about 90% of all leaf curling or leaf injury like yellowing and so on can be attributed to environmental issues – not nutritional.
The main nutritional causes of leaf curling are Magnesium and Manganese Deficiency.
Magnesium Deficiency Curling shows on the middle to older leaves with patching yellowing as well. But the leaf veins stay green (inter-veinal chlorosis).
Manganese deficiency curling first starts showing at younger leaves. So this is how you differentiate between the two.
So, the first thing you need to do to support this diagnosis of nutritional cause of leaf curling is a Soil PH Test. Too much alkaline soil will inhibit the absorption of these micro nutrients by the roots. Simply adding micro nutrient powder will not help. First test the PH and correct the PH. You can make it Acidic by adding Alum or Vinegar.
Then, You can also Foliar Spray with Epsom salt solution if magnesium deficiency is suspected.
Purchasing a plant from a plant nursery requires patience. Take your time and never purchase anything in a hurry. Remember! If your purchase a plant in a hurry, your time, money and efforts will be wasted.
Please follow these 10 useful tips while choosing your plant. And please watch all the tips till the end, else you will end up buying sick and unhealthy plants.
- Decide on the type of Plant You want to buy whether indoor or outdoor plant. You should know where to place it in your home garden, whether its shade loving, sun loving or semi-shady plant or indoor plant and whether it suits your climate and this knowledge is really important for the plant to survive.
- Do not hesitate to ASK: that is enquire with the nursery staff and question them regarding the name of the plant, how to care for the plant, the type of plant whether indoor or outdoor, fertilizer requirements and so on. Then cross check them at reliable sources at google search.
- The First Look of the Plant: First look on the plant itself will reveal its overall health. Take a Closer look and compare with other similar plants for more bushiness or more branches and new shoots. If its looking fresh and healthy, then decide on it and make further judgement by applying few more coming tips below.
- Overall Look and Hygiene of the Nursery or the Garden Store: Check whether they are maintaining it well like the overall appearance including arrangements of the plants, cleanliness of the nursery and so on.
- Soil and Watering: check whether they are using a good well draining soil for the plant and check whether the plant is watered adequately by the nursery staff. You can assess this by simply dipping your finger into the soil to check watering as well as the soil compactness. Your finger should be moist and should easily enter without much effort into the soil.
- Check for Weeds: If there are lot of weeds around the plant, it indicates poor maintenance by the nursery staff. The weeds actually rob off the nutrients from the main plant, stunting its growth.
- Look at Leaves not Flowers: Do not buy plants in Full Bloom, Instead, choose plants with healthy foliage and nice fresh growth with many flowering buds still to open. Even if its full bloomed plant, check whether it has lot of buds in it.
- Proportionate size of the Pot or the grow bag is also important factor. Check whether the plant is getting adequate space for its root development. Like if you see larger plants in small containers or grow bags, this can indicate poor maintenance and the plant can get root bound and stunted growth. That’s our next point.
- Inspect Roots wherever possible and check for Root Bound Plants: What is the meaning of root bound plants? This happens when the plant grows and matures and there is no space for root development and eventually, the roots grow to the shape of the pot and the growth of the plant stops and the plant may even die. But most of the times you cannot remove the plant and directly check this. But one tip to grossly check this is: Check whether the roots of the plant are coming out of the drainage holes and entering the ground. Better not buy such plants.
- Look for Pest attacks: Look at the plant very carefully especially underneath the leaves for insects & pests. Plus Also check for Damaged/curled leaves, you better reject such plants even if offered free of cost or as a gift. Because such plants may harm & contaminate your other garden plants.