How to prevent root rot in potted plants is key to keeping your plants healthier and to maintaining an elegant outdoor or indoor view in your home. One of the most important ways to prevent root rot is to avoid waterlogging conditions in your potted plants.
In this guide, you will find more information on the plant care tips you should follow to prevent root rot in potted beauties, so continue reading.
How To Prevent Root Rot in Potted Plants in the Best Ways?
To prevent root rot in potted plants, you should first ensure that the pot has enough draining holes, and avoid overwatering it. You can replace the soil once a year, schedule the watering session, avoid using oversized pots, select plants with extensive rooting systems, and repot immediately after some signs.
– Make Sure Your Pots Have Enough Drainage Holes
You can enjoy growing indoor plants if you allow adequate drainage in your pots. When you are selecting the pots for growing your plants, ensure that they will allow efficient drainage to the species you have selected. You should note that poorly drained containers decrease the infiltration of water as well as encourage damp conditions that promote root rot.
The water should have a way to escape in all except the last vessel, usually through drainage holes. If the container’s water is left, your plant could still develop this fungus that would attack the roots even with the best watering regimen.
Certain plant pots, such as those made of metal or ceramic, do not always come with holes, and as a matter of this issue, your plant will perish in them unless you drill the holes.
When the rot infecting in your potted plants because of the too few or tiny drainage holes on the pots, you start to witness lesions, stunted growth, branch dieback, yellowing of leaves, and brown spots. However, it is possible for the plant to recover, as one of the ways to treat root rot is by applying organic neem oil.
– Avoid Overwatering Your Plants
Another crucial factor is how frequently you water your houseplants. You should water your indoor potted plants anywhere from once a week to once a month, depending on the type of plant that you are growing.
You can increase the watering frequency of your houseplant as soon as the growing season begins, which is usually in the spring, and make sure that you are aware of the plant’s requirements and don’t go beyond it.
Maintain your schedule during the summer, when the temperatures are high. The majority of houseplant species complete their active growth period around autumn; you can start to cut down a little. Although you should water your potted plants less frequently in the winter, you should not stop, because even in the dormant period, the plant needs water.
For this matter, what you can do is test your potting soil using your fingers to determine if your soil has dried out. If you notice that the soil is not sticking to your fingers, proceed by applying the appropriate amounts of water, based on the needs of your plants.
You can design a timetable for watering your houseplants so that you avoid waterlogged conditions, and as you do this, it will assist in preventing root rot from attacking your plants.
– Replace Your Potting Soil at Least Once a Year
You can prevent root rot by changing the soil in your pots, so this is when fresh soil promotes good growing conditions for your plants and is less likely to be compacted. The duration of a plant’s potting soil depends on the type of plant, particular requirements, and its surroundings.
Over time, even the well-draining soil might start to hold up more moisture as the soil becomes more compact due to care procedures such as watering. When the water holding of the soil increases, the likelihood of root rot also rises.
In some situations, if you continue using the same potting mix for several years, root rot starts to affect your plants. In those cases, you begin to see signs of root rot, including wilting, despite the availability of moisture. Some of the plants will show damaged roots. It is important to know how to fix the rot in outdoor plants, and changing the potting soil is one such method.
Rotting roots of the infected plants change color to brown. More signs of root rot in houseplants include wilting even when moisture is available and the smell of rotting roots that would be such foul smell.
Fungi favor the soil that contains more moisture, therefore replacing your soil mix will allow good aeration that hinders the growth of these microorganisms.
– Schedule The Watering Session
Overwatering is the main culprit when it comes to what causes root rot, but when there is the lack of watering, it can also contribute in some way. When you don’t water the plant enough, it can also result in root rot, even though overwatering is the most typical cause of this condition. Without proper moisture, the roots begin to dry out and eventually die.
The roots now have it considerably harder to receive the oxygen they require to function properly. When the roots that are damaged are irrigated, they fail to absorb the moisture and begin to rot. In this case, you start to notice signs such as wilting mushy stems, brown, reddish roots, and the soil smells rotten again caused by irregular irrigation.
– Avoid Using Oversized Pots
It may be tempting to give your plant more area to grow so that you can avoid having to repot it in the future, but this is not a good idea. Problems can arise from excess soil because the bare ground can turn into a soggy zone, which is when you would be using the appropriate pots is a brilliant idea that will reduce the occurrence of root rot.
The pots of good size allow good drainage, in short, you will check how the roots of the plants will not suffocate. Suffocation in the plant’s pot leads to rotting and smelly roots. This is because when the soil becomes soggy, it becomes difficult for the roots to access the oxygen that the plant needs.
– Select Plants With Extensive Deep Root Systems
When you select the plants to grow in your outdoor or indoor pots, choose those with deep roots because they can absorb water quickly in your pots. Plants with deep, extensive roots are more likely to use the available moisture in time, reducing the possibility of soggy conditions promoting the development of fungi.
On another note, if you decide on species with no deep roots, it is important to monitor your watering patterns closely.
– Immediate Repotting After Some Signs
If you feel like your plant is showing you some signs, but it is in the early states of the development of this issue, you can have your plant recover, especially if the treatment is started earlier. Root rot in established trees is regrettably very difficult to treat because it is impossible to pull up older trees to get deteriorated or dead roots. It is possible to dig up younger trees because their root systems are shallower and smaller.
Start by gently excavating the area around the younger tree, taking good care to remove as much of the plant root system as possible. Thoroughly rinse the root ball with your yard hose before cutting away the damaged areas. Applying fungicides to the tree roots can help to stop root rot from developing in the future.
Replant your smaller trees in a spot with loose, wet soil. Also, leave treating a fungus to the experts. The incorrect fungicide application can further weaken your tree’s already fragile state.
Conclusion
You have been through all the care tips you need to master in order to prevent root rot in your potted plants; now, read some of the important points before you go:
- Taking care of potted plants is simple if you follow the correct procedures like appropriate watering frequencies.
- Root rot is a disease that favors damp conditions
- Replacing your soil in pots once a year and desisting from using oversized pots are the other important care tips that help to prevent root rot.
- You can save your plant from root rot if you take immediate action in the first days of infection.
Now you have all the required information at your fingertips on how to prevent root rot, and you can keep healthy plants right away. Hurry and grow your plants today.
