When the leaves of a plant wilt it is a sign that the plant needs water, and therefore it is a good time to water–right? Maybe. The plant might need to be watered, but it is also possible that water will harm the plant.
Why do Leaves Wilt?
When we get thirsty, our bodies are letting us know that we need more water. It is a feeling we have. Other people looking at us can’t really tell we need more water. Part of the reason for this is that we have a skeleton structure that keeps us standing straight. Green leafy plants don’t have a similar structure; they use water pressure to keep them standing upright.
You can think of the plant leaf as being similar to a garden hose. With the water turned off, the hose is limp–its wilted. When we turn the water on, the water pressure inside the hose increases and the hose becomes stiff. The stiff hose no longer looks wilted. Plants work exactly the same way. In order for a plant to maintain its normal shape it needs a certain amount of water pressure inside the leaves.
Water pressure is maintained in the leaves by the roots which are absorbing water from the soil and pumping it up into the leaves. Leaves naturally loose water, especially during photosynthesis. Water is constantly flowing from the roots to the leaves.
If roots can’t get enough water, they can’t maintain the correct water pressure in the plant and the leaves droop or wilt.
Why Can’t Roots get Enough Water?
When the soil gets dry, the roots will be unable to get enough water. If this is the problem, watering the soil will certainly help and wilted plants will regain their turgor (ie stiffness).
There is another possible reason why plants can’t get enough water. The roots may be damaged. If the normal root size is reduced substantially, you have a situation where there are not enough roots to get enough water for the whole plant. In this case the soil might be quite wet but the plant will still wilt. Adding more water will not help.
Roots might be damaged during transplanting or they might have rotted.
Damaged Roots During Transplanting
When you move a plant, especially a larger established plant, you will damage a lot of roots. It is quite normal for such a plant to show wilting right after being moved.
It is quite common for people to water far too much after transplanting in order to try and fix the problem. Too much water does not help the problem. One solution is to move plants in spring and fall when the temperatures are lower and plants are not growing at full tilt. At these times of the year water evaporation from leaves is less and you get less wilting.
If you do move a plant in summer, it will wilt much less if it is covered for a week or two so that it receives less sun light.
Rotting Roots
Over-watering a plant can cause the roots to rot. Some diseases can also cause roots to rot. With less roots, the plant wilts. Some people will then water the plant even more, causing even more root rot.
Wilted plants should only be watered if the soil is dry. If the soil is not dry, it is not a water problem and watering can only make things worse.
Does Wilting Hurt a Plant?
The short answer is YES. Occasional short term wilting will not do too much harm, but it is still not good for the plant.
Some people think that wilting is a natural phenomena in plants and it shows that they are conserving water. That is simply not true. When plants do not have enough water they go into crisis mode. They stop growing, they close stomata to conserve water and they shut down other vital processes. Wilting is a sign that the plant is in crisis mode. If this is due to a lack of water, the plant should be watered right away to reduce long term damage to the plant.
Some plants, like ligularia, which have very large thin leaves, wilt more easily than most plants. By mid-day my ligularia are all wilting even when grown in shade and in wet soil. By 6:00 pm they are back to normal, showing fully stretched out leaves. Is this the best situation for these plants? NO. But some plants are better able to survive the crisis than others and a few hours of wilting does not seem to cause permanent damage to ligularia.
The best time to water is the day before the plant wilts. Wilting is never good for a plant.
References:
1) Photo Source: Mountain Empire Community College
Well I think I’ve done a stupid thing and hurriedly planted my Edgeworthia shrub before we had heavy rains. It had been at a nursery for while and I felt like it just needed to be planted rather than sit in the pot any longer. Now our temps have skyrocketed on the heels of said rains and my shrub is completely wilted with no signs of springing back to life as the heat of the day wanes. I dug it up to be sure it was not sitting in water and the ground is still saturated so I added additional pine bark fines and compost and brought the shrub up a bit higher, just in case that was the problem. I’m at a total loss and don’t know what to do? The root ball appears to be in tact and the roots are not black or darkened. Please help?! Yes, clay soil…zone 7a.
Give it time – shrubs take months or even years to settle in.
Hello, I’ve had four poinsettias for years now, which have been very hard to keep alive due to plagues, but I’ve managed and they’re still flowering. However, recently my mom forced me to repot them, all four of them into one medium container, even though each plant had its own large pot before, for years. Now, the four of them are wilting, they wilt first and then their leaves get crisp and dry, I’m afraid they will die after all my years of hard work. What should I do?? Do I wait to see if they make it? Do I get them back into their old pots??
I’d put them into larger pots. I see no point in taking plants in large pots and moving them into smaller pots.
Hi,
We have small white egg plants like 3 inches in height. Rcently, we exposed them to excess sunshine then we noticed the wilting of the leaves. We noticed it in like 10mins time and then quickly moved to a shady spot (where it was before). And then we sprinkled some water over the plant and to the soil as a remedy. Will it damage the plant.?
Thanks.
Probably not – but seedlings are tender.
Around nine months ago, I planted some carambola seeds from Grenada indoors in São Paulo. They grew into three saplings around 20cm tall and too close together, and were rapidly outgrowing their container.
So I transplanted the three of them, still together, to a larger pot -it was very hard on the roots, which had grown into the bottom of the lining of the previous pot. Now the saplings are all wilted and look moribund.
··· – – – ··· Any advice? Should I remove more of the curled leaves, and remove more branches with leaves that look poorly? I reckon I really altered the “leaf surface to root surface ratio” by destroying so much root tissue.
Thanks!
Keep soil moist, but do not over water. Do nothing else, except keep it in some shade so it is not stressed by high light or hot conditions.
thank you,
I have potted Jasmin and aquarium, I put 10 gram of sodium chloride and 10 gram of Epsom Salt for every 100 liter of aquarium water when I change aquarium water weekly, can i use this water which containing sodium chloride and Epsom Salt to watering my Jasmin
Most plants find sodium to be toxic – so no, this is not a good idea.
thank you
Excellent article. Thx for all the info.
I transplanted my cestrum nocturnum which was fine when I bought it. After a day I began to notice some wilting so I added some compost to it. That did not help so I went and got another plant (cestrum nocturnum) from a different seller and transplanted it unfortunately the wilting on the second one began a few hours afterwards. I’m confused as I water appropriately (once in 3 days) yet I do not see a difference. What can I do please?
Roots may have been damaged – give the plant a couple of weeks to settle in. Cover it to reduce light for a week or two – this reduces the amount of wilting.
Thank you sir. I however got impatient and cut up two strong stems from my plants and stuck them in a transparent jar of water and within a couple of hours the leaves came back to life. They’ve been in water for a few days and they look fine. I plan to leave them there for a few weeks so they can begin developing roots but my fear is how to move them back to the potted soil after the roots grow out without them wilting or even dying out.
Once they have a good root system, just plant them up, and keep them shaded for a while until they get established in the soil.
I planted flower seeds directly into my flower bed. After 6 weeks they were tall enough for thinning, so I spread them out over the bed. Im not sure which flowers they are specifically, but I planted 4 o’clocks, bachelor buttons, a butterfly mixture (white alyssum, african daisy, prairie and purple coneflower, lupines, hesperis, gaillardia, columbine, cosmos sensation, coreopsis, butterfly weed). The leaves are pale green in color and are long and tapered with rounded ends. I was careful in my transplanting, and watered lightly with a mist setting after I completed my transplants. The leaves are all wilted, I live in a canadian prairie climate, and this spring has proven quite warm and sunny thus far. Are they a lost cause, and if not, how should I proceed with watering/feeding schedule to bring them back? Please help.😕
I bought a lemon mint plant from a plant sale at my school a couple weeks ago. I’ve watered it once a day every day, kept it in the shade of my window sill (it has bushes growing in frony of it). It’s grown a lot since I got it, but there was a tiny brown spot on the edge of one leaf I thought would go away. It’s been steadily growing and now it’s bigger than half the leaf. The edge of the leaf is wilted and dry, but the rest is just brown. I’ve never taken care of plants before and I don’t know what to do. I didn’t water it today to see if I’ve been overwatering it, but it only made the brown spot bigger. Should I remove the leaf? Thank you
In general – it there is some green – do not remove the leaf since it is still feeding the plant. Once all brown, it is of no use to the plant.
Hi Robert. I live in South Florida and I just planted 30 baby pentas in a small garden area that is at an slight incline. What I am noticing is a few of the pentas – not all (top of incline) will wilt at midday and will revive at night (sometimes) or whenever I water them. What can I do to help my pentas? I don’t want over water by watering everyday.
Use mulch. If that does not work – then maybe plant something else that does not need as much water.