Please Help! Peppermint plant with spots/discoloration!

10 years ago

I have a peppermint plant that I recently got a hold of and still have in its original pot/soil. I haven't transplanted it yet.

Some of the leaves have slight discoloration and I wanted to make sure that I didn't pick up a plant with an ailment of some sort.

Many of the other mint plants at the store had the very same spots. Does anyone know why this is, what it is, and if it's harmful? It does get quite a lot of sun. Are mints supposed to get only partial sun?

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Comments (6)

jean001a
10 years ago
It's a lot of plant in a small pot. It's a good bet it's stressed.

If you want to keep it, I suggest you cut off the top growth then plant into the garden right away. Chances are it will then be fine.
bedtime
10 years ago
I do not recommend planting that in the garden as it is an extremely invasive plant and will spread and take over.
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KendraSchmidt
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you both. I'll put it in a large pot then, I was hoping to wait until I could find a nice one, but I don't want to loose my plant in the meantime. Thank you for the feedback
bedtime
10 years ago
I just wanted to say that your plant seems to look alot like chocolate mint, though I'm not quite sure. I have chocolate mint and spearmint plant and they are among my favorite. They seem to grow with almost any abuse. Make sure to use a big pot or you'll be wishing you had very soon as it will become rootbound.
zzackey
10 years ago
It looks like it got water on the leaves when the sun was out. Sun scald. I would just cut the bad leaves off. It is probably root bound. I would gently grasp the roots at the bottom and try to loosen them some. Fertilize in 2 or 3 weeks lightly with 6-6-6 or 10-10-10. It is better to under fertilizer than over fertilize. About 10 pellets of fertilizer per plant works well for me.
weedlady
10 years ago
It definitely must be given a way bigger pot! You can be quite rough with mint: yank it out of the pot, pull apart a lot of the stems and give it a pot something like the size of the ones those fall garden mums you see in the stores come in.

Or you could pull it apart a lot and root in a container of water any stems that seem not to have much root development before potting. (And personally I would strongly suggest a soilless mix to which some good compost or organic fertilizer like fish emulsion or seaweed has been added rather than any chemical fertilizer.)

But I am thinking those spots visible in your first photo look suspiciously like damage from the 4-lined plant bug--an insect pest with a real affinity for all members of the mint family.

One last thing, Kendra: it often helps us to help folks with garden problems if you add your zone and state up top along with your name (and we usually make up names!).

Here is a link that might be useful: 4-lined plant bug damage