Learning how to water plants to increase growth in pots, container or garden - especially how to water roots and tubers. Specialities: root growth or tuber growth of lawns, fuchsias, geraniums, dahlias and begonias.

3 March 2011

Floppy Yellow Geranium Leaves

water damage on geranium leavesGrowing is not easy. I mean, we do our best, but we don't get everything right (though it would be nice to get SOMETHING right, now and again!). Stepping up the watering on this geranium (pelargonium), to support the flowers, was too hasty. The weather turned dull and cold, and the plant didn't use the water quickly enough. The yellowing floppy leaves are signs of over-watering.

The plant has jettisoned the oldest, lower, leaves first, leaving the younger ones - especially the apical (top) bud containing the meristem - to support the flower (out of sight at the top of the picture).

This shows that we don't need lots of leaves to support flowers - just a few will do.

Incidentally, it wasn't a complete disaster. The next flower will also be large, thanks to the water.

But there is something else which might be significant: I only seem to get this problem at this time of year after the plant has been fed. The same thing happened last year. It might be the increased activity associated with the feed which has caused the problem. Who knows?

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