Identification and Treatment of Root Rot in Potted Plants and Trees

How to Identify Root Rot in Flowers and Trees

Look at the pot soil

In summer and autumn, for normally growing flowers and trees, water them thoroughly once a day in fine weather. Check the soil in the pots at the same time the next day. If the soil is dry and slightly white, the root system is normal. If the soil does not dry out and turn white, and is still moist, it means that the roots of the plant have rotted. If it is still moist after 2 to 3 days, it means that most of the roots of the plant have rotted.

Look at leaf color

If you have several pots of the same kind of flowers and trees, put them together. If you find that the leaves of one of the plants have lost their green luster and become grayish white, or the leaves of the plant are wilted, or the lower leaves turn yellow and fall off in large numbers when it is not the leaf-changing season, it means that the plant's nutritional fibrous roots have rotted due to waterlogging, fertilization, or heavy watering after excessive drought.

Look at the leaf shape

Longitudinal wrinkles and deformities on the leaves of potted flowers and trees also indicate that the root system of the plant has rotted. This mainly occurs in flower species with fleshy roots, such as Strelitzia and Clivia. Due to the rotting of the lower nutritional roots, the parts of the leaves connected to them cannot get the proper water and nutrients, causing these parts to stop growing or even shrink, and the growth is asynchronous, resulting in longitudinal wrinkles and deformities of the leaves. Although this situation will not cause the death of the plant, it will also affect the normal growth and appearance of the plant.

Look at the leaf tip

Some species of flowers and trees will have scorched tips of their leaves after being grown for a period of time. There are two reasons for this.

One reason is that the root tip of the plant extends and hits the wall of the pot. Watering under conditions of high air and soil temperature causes the part of the fleshy root tip that performs nutritional functions to be damaged and rotted, making it impossible for water and nutrients to be transported to the leaf tip, causing partial necrosis of the leaf tip.

Another situation is that the pot is large but the flowers are small, and the soil in the pot is in a state of waterlogging for a long time, causing the root ends to rot and lose nutritional function, and yellow-brown spots to appear in the middle or edges of the leaves. The possibility of disease should be considered.