5 ways to Revive a dying plant

Plants act as a bridge between you and nature. It doesn’t matter what type of plants you have in your house or the yard, these living things will keep on adding a flair of freshness, rich color, and ambient texture throughout your property which, in turn, make you feel relieved.

However, to get the most out of these green-beings, you need to make them look thriving by fulfilling their basic needs of water, sunlight, and nutrients. Can a person feel energetic around the yellowing or decaying plants? Of course not!

However, if the plants in your yard have started to wilt, you can resuscitate them. All you need, for this, is the most appropriate method and timely action. To save your time and help you get your magic wand of plants’ resuscitation, we’ve compiled some of the most useful methods to revive a dying plant.

 Identify the problem 

The very first thing you need to do to revive your dying plants is to identify the factors which are depriving their health. Look for the symptoms to detect the problem and address it accordingly.

The general factors which harm the health of a plant are overwatering, underwatering, and inappropriate sunlight exposure. Besides these problems, pest attacks, root rot, fungal and mould infestation could also be the agent behind your plant’s death.

The question which arises here is how a person could evaluate what a plant is suffering from? The simple, one-word solution is the SYMPTOMS. For example, if the leaves of your plants are turning yellowish-brown and getting dry rapidly, the problem is underwatering.

To ensure that it’s the underwatering which is harming your plants, check the moisture level of the soil. If the soil is too dry, cracky, and patchy, it’s confirmed that all your plants need to revive is water. Similarly, if the leaves are turning yellow and also wilting at a super-fast rate, the problem must be overwatering.

Again, to confirm the problem, check the soil and if you find it to be muddy, it would mean that your plants are getting more water than they need. Likewise, to detect the pest invasion, check for the deformed leaves – leaves having unusual shapes or having small holes over the surface. The problem like root rot can also be detected either by searching for the dark brown or light yellow patch on leaves or by examining the roots directly.

 Solve the watering problems 

Now, if you’ve identified that it was bad watering habits that were making your plants suffer, address this problem as soon as possible. If the problem is underwater, the solution is simplest. Just pour the water into the pot as long as the water starts to flow out of the drainage hole.

However, if your plants are planted into the garden beds, water them using a garden hose or sprayer as long as the water begins to pool around the plant. Make a proper watering schedule and try to follow it strictly. If you can’t do this, get yourself an automatic irrigation system that will dampen your plants’ watering needs optimally.

Another thing that you can do in this regard is to use water-storing capsules or crystals. These crystals help the soil to retain water, thus, helping the plants to fight better during periods of drought. After soaking the soil completely, spray the water over the leaves so every part of your plants; roots and leaves, could intake water and start moving towards resuscitation sooner.

However, water the plants gently and avoid splashing them over the roots and shoots harshly since it can harm the seedlings and root hairs. Even if you are dealing with a fully grownup plant, treat it like a small seedling – with utmost care.

Now if the problem of your plants is overwatering then the very first thing you need to do is to stop the water supply immediately. After this, go towards the drainage holes to check whether they are sufficiently open or blocked. Generally, a drainage hole of about one inch is required by a large plant to breathe freely.

Remove the excess water from the pot either by pouring it out or drying the soil. If you find that the soil is too muddy, the only effective solution to revive your plant is a transplant – pluck it out gently from the roots and plant it again into a good quality and perfectly-moist soil mix.

 Fight the pest infestation 

If your plants are getting deteriorated by the pest or bugs infestation, only prompt action could save them from dying. Get the good quality pesticides – prefer organic and specific pest killers. However, before spraying the pesticides over your plants, prune out all the damaged parts including leaves, shoots, and even the rotten roots.

Not only the damaged leaves, but you also need to cut out the yellowing and completely dried stems and leaves. To check whether a stem has dried completely, use a scratch test. In this, you have to scratch the bark either with your fingernail or a knife. If you discover a green stem beneath the dried epidermis, it’s alive and you don’t need to trim it out.

Once done with trimming damaged portions, the next step is to spray your pesticides. If you have to deal with a large-scale pest infestation, we’d suggest testing the pesticides on a single plant at first. If it helps plants to get greener and healthier again, you can confidently use that pesticide on other plants in your yard as well.

Besides the synthetic pesticides, you can also get help from home remedies. For example, if you observe so many bugs crawling over your plants, like spider mites, fungus gnats, fruit flies, etc. you can wipe those bugs off using a wet cloth dipped in a mild insecticide or solution of baking powder and water.

 Improve the soil quality 

With time, soil begins to lose its nutrients and minerals and become insufficient to feed your plants properly. In such situations, you need to add plant feed into the soil so it can get back to its original nutrient content.

The question that must be wandering in your mind is how a person would know about the nutrient in which the soil is deficient. For this purpose, nutrients-testing kits are widely available in the market. You just have to get those not-so-expensive kits and use them according to the given set of instructions. Resultantly, it will tell you about the nutrients your plants are longing for.

Remember that there’s no one-size-fits-all rule when it comes to planting nutrient requirements. Every plant needs one or two nutrients in higher concentrations than other nutrients. Thus, get help from the internet or your local nursery to understand the needs of your plants most accurately.

Just like testing the nutrient content of the soil, check your soil pH regularly with the help of pH testing kits. The same rule also applies here that every plant requires the soil of a different pH. It happens sometimes that the plants refuse to grow in the same soil, even if both the pH and nutrient level is perfect.

If that’s the case, remove your plants from the pot and change their location by planting them in another pot, with fresh soil. The best soil is the one that is rich in organic content. Thus, whether you buy packaged soil or get the soil from a nursery, get only the one having higher concentrations of organic materials.

 Maintain a proper sunlight exposure 

If several discoloured patches are forming over the leaves, it means your plants have been placed under too much sunlight. The scorches which represent the over-exposure are usually very light or very dark in colour. In such circumstances, change the position of your indoor plants to a shadier portion of your house.

However, if it’s the outdoor plants that are suffering from harsh sunlight, shade them with cardboard or a piece of garden fabric. You can also relocate the plant into a shadier part of your yard, like near a tree. On the other hand, if the leaves of your plants are turning much paler than usual or the plant is not growing up to the usual length, it means they are not getting enough sunlight.

For indoor plants, solving such a problem is a matter of seconds since all you have to do is to pick the pot up and place it over the terrace or window, facing the sun. To impart enough sunlight to your outdoor plants, remove the bushes and move the trees and shrubs aside, or relocate the plants to a sunnier area.

Final thoughts