Plants wilting by afternoon.

10 years ago

I have a pot with a sunflower and some cosmos growing. Its pretty hot here in the American Midwest and usually when I come home in the late afternoon, I find that they've started drooping. The cosmos petals are usually wilted or shriveled up and the leaves on all of them are droopy. Is there any way I can keep them hydrated throughout the day? I hate leaving home with some beautiful flowers and then coming back to see them gone.

Their pots are ... 5 gallons? Somewhere around that. I put a layer of compost and cardboard as mulch but that doesn't really help. They're positioned such that they get sun from early morning to late afternoon with about an hour of shade at high noon due to a beam blocking it.

Featured Answer

NHBabs z4b-5a NH

10 years ago

If the soil is dry when you stick your finger in as far as it will go when you get home, get large saucers to put under the pots and water until it pools in the saucer before you leave in the morning. Then it can get taken up by the pots' soil during the day.

Other strategies for future years:

- I've found that pots that have a teaspoon or so of so-called "water crystals" mixed into the soil do much better in hot, full sun areas. It starts looking like coarse road salt, but when soaked absorbs enough water to look and feel like a Jello cube. So put a teaspoon full in a large container of water, mix well into the soil once it has expanded, and your plants will have moisture available for a longer time.

- Unglazed clay pots lose moisture through the sides and so dry out faster than glazed or plastic pots.

- Smaller pots have a larger surface to soil ratio, so larger pots dry more slowly.

- Use plants with lower water needs such as succulents, Dahlias, or western Salvias.

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Comments (6)

xiangirl zone 4/5 Nebraska
10 years ago
I'll ask some questions. Do the plants recover every evening after the sun/heat is less intense? A 5-gallon plastic bucket is really big (about the size of your pots) so I'm assuming they are getting enough water. I know sunflowers need a lot of water. I'm in the Midwest, too. I've never tried those flowers in pots. Is it a large sunflower? Heidi
Solu
Original Author
10 years ago
Dunno if they recover on their own, I water them once I get home, after which they recover in moments. The dirt is always dry looking.

My mother waters them for me since she leaves later than I do. She claims that she's aware of their wilting and that she waters them a lot though I cannot be sure how much.

One pot is holding one big sunflower in the center (currently about 4+ feet tall and starting to flower) along with three or four cosmos. And another pot holds another four or five cosmos.
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rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
10 years ago
I suggest that you need to feel the soil rather than rely on what the surface looks like. Digging down into the mix before you water in the afternoon is the only way to determine whether your plant is very dry or still has plenty of moisture.

If the container seems to be pretty moist when you poke around, it might be a loss of roots that is causing the wilting.

Does the cardboard impede thorough watering? I can't help think that it would be a problem in a container.

It would not be unusual for a heavily planted container to require a good drenching twice a day in the high heat of summer. But you must ascertain the reason for the wilting....insufficient moisture or developing root rot.

You also need to find out how much water your mother is giving the plants in the morning.
Solu
Original Author
10 years ago
Hmm, maybe "wilting" is the wrong word for it. I don't think it's root rot. No part of the plant is actually dying or anything (except the petals on the cosmos...), they just become droopy. And on rather cooler days, the plants survive through the afternoon just fine.

Also, after having another look, the pots may actually be smaller, perhaps about three gallons.

But my main concern is keeping them hydrated throughout the day. As said, I don't want to come home to a few more flowers with their petals gone.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
10 years ago
Plants wilt for several reasons. Insufficient water, or root rot which reduces the number of roots available to take up water, or and excess heat and plant evapo-transpiration. In the case of the latter, water loss through stomata exceeds what the plant can take up....the plant wilts in the heat of the day, but can recover when the plant cools down.

Thus, wilting can be caused both by under- or overwatering.

The word wilt means that the plant cells have lost their turgidity, for whatever reason.