As soon as you notice your plants drooping down or sagging, it is easy to fix the issue with a few physical supports (a stick); more water in the soil, checking for bugs, or checking for any fungus.
When your plant is getting weak and drooping down towards the floor, it is trying to tell you that something is wrong and that action is needed quickly.
In This Article – We will cover the different things that may cause your plant to droop as well as the ways to fix it.
What Causes Plants to Droop?
Like any animals, plants need adequate water, nutrients, and care to flourish.
If your plant isn’t receiving adequate care, it will be too weak to be able to hold itself upright and will begin to drip.
Over or Under Watering
When your plant is drooping, the first thing to check is the soil to see if the plant has enough water or too much.
If there isn’t enough water in the soil, the plant will start to dehydrate and, without enough nourishment to the plant/roots and stems, the plant will droop.
If you are overwatering your plant, you can literally drown them, which can kill the roots turning them mushy and eventually, develop some mold/fungus.
This mold/fungus will literally spread throughout the plant causing it to droop.
Bug Infestation
Insect activity is another usual problem, and it tends to be associated with plant weakness.
A heavy infestation is going to cause the plants structure and cause it to break down and collapse.
There are some common bugs to look out for that can do some considerable damage to foliage.
- Aphids: Commonly called plant lice, most aphids are small, softbodied, colored and identifiable by the fact that they suck out of the plant by literally taking away its liquid or nutrients out of the inside of the stem and leaves.
- Spider Mites: Spider mites are little bugs that hide underneath the leaves of plants that resemble tiny spiders that eat the plant leaves.
- Mealy Bugs: Mealy bugs are sapsuckers that are covered in white fursty scales which look like flour meal.
- White flies: Whiteflies have has a layer of wax material that is powdery or white and they eat the sap off of plants.
Lack of Proper Lighting
Plants tend to grow toward the sun, or a different light source; without access to sufficient lighting (and the warmth and luminescence of the sun), your plant will lose strength and be able to sustain itself.
How to Fix Your Plant that is Drooping
Now that you know the top reasons for drooping plants.
Let’s look at the best ways to fix these scenarios and get your plants back on their feet.
Provide Adequate Water Supply
You need to know that every plant you grow will need a different amount of water, based on where it found its native area and where its currently located.
A tropical plant (which are usually some of the most common house plants) actually does not require too much water, just enough to dampen the soil near its roots.
In most instances, tropical plants should only be watered when the soil is dry down about an inch.
Other plants will require much more water, where the soil remains moist without being soggy, such as plants like lily of the valley, daylilies, and Irises.
Additional signs that your plant is thirsty:
Soil is dry
Leaves are wilting
Leaves are browning or wrinkled
Plant has stopped growing
Provide Effective Drainage
You need to know that every plant you grow will need a different amount of water, based on where it found its native area and where its currently located.
A tropical plant (which are usually some of the most common house plants) actually does not require too much water, just enough to dampen the soil near its roots.
In most instances, tropical plants should only be watered when the soil is dry down about an inch.
Other plants will require much more water, where the soil remains moist without being soggy, such as plants like lily of the valley, daylilies, and Irises.
Additional signs that your plant is thirsty:
- Soil is dry
- Leaves are wilting
- Leaves are browning or wrinkled
- Plant has stopped growing
Offer a Light Source
If your plant is droopy, and it’s in a shady spot or indoors and not getting any sun, give it a lighting source to help it out.
Put your potted plant caption in front of a window or provide it an alternative lighting source.
If your foliage is outside, move it to a location that has more sun, or remove the blockage.
There are other signs a plant is not getting enough light:
- Stopping growth
- Losing dark green colouration in a leaf
- Increased spacing between leaves.
Offer Extra Plant Food
It could be that there aren’t enough nutrients in the soil to give your plants the vigor to stay alive.
Research some of the better food for your particular plant and see if you can solve the problem.
There are many types of food that are highly versatile in that they’ll work with almost any plant, or you can purchase specific to a plant food and/or other additives that improve foliar appearance and vigor.
Here are some additional telltale signs that your plant may not be getting enough nutrients:
- Purple, or brown spotting on leaves
- Browning on leaf edges
- A longer time to maturity
- Stunted growth
Frequently Check For Infestation
If the problems above aren’t related to the cause of your plants drooping, then you’ll want to pay attention to bug activity.
There are tons of products for bug problems on plants, as there are natural and DIY products.
While we described quite a few types of bugs above which can often be seen destroying plants, they are not the only living organisms that can really suck the life out of your plants.
Look our for other intruders such as snails, butterflies, earwigs, beetles, caterpillars, and more.
Other signs that your plant has been infested are:
- tiny holes in the leaves
- drooping leaves
- you can see the eggs underneath the leaves
- the leaves have brown or yellowing
- snail slime trails
Give it a Crutch
If you have way too tall plants, or, like a stop gap for weak ones, you take a stick and put it into the ground next to the drooping plant, and tie it around the stem.
Then it can help hold your sick plant till it gets better and can support itself.
If you have small plants you can use a popsicle stick and if you have large plants buy a wooden dowel.
Add More Soil
The solution to your predicament could be simply putting on more dirt.
If there is not enough soil or dirt around the roots and lower half of the steam, there will not be enough stability for the plant to be able to stand up straight.
Putting a little extra dirt may create enough stability to let your plant stand up and not rely on its your assistance.
Summing Things Up
There can be a variety of reasons why your plant may be drooping.
The best way to address the problem is to know and understand your plant, notice when something is amiss, and have the specific knowledge to identify the issue.