Help! My plant is super droopy!
So, you walked outside and one of your beloved plants looks like it’s wilting into nothingness. Its valiant struggle to live now reaching its end, it appears to be melting into the soil. But fear not! It’s entirely likely your plant just needs a bit of a pick me up. Don’t believe me? Here’s the exact same plant from the preview image just a few hours later:
So what’s the fix? Well, it could actually be a few things…
It’s always almost always water!
The likely culprit that is making your plant look like a horticultural version of The Cryptkeeper is water. Most often in these cases, for whatever reason it’s not getting enough water. Give the plant a hearty drink, wait a few hours after the heat of the day for it to recuperate, and see if it perks up. Usually, you’ll see a miraculous recovery from even the most dramatic plants!
“But I’ve been watering it every 20 minutes,” you say. Well, it could also be that you’re watering too much. If you feel like you’ve been watering it regularly but it’s still droopy, then perhaps try dialing back the watering schedule a bit. Some plants are very sensitive to being overwatered and will exhibit the same or similar symptoms to underwatering. Even if you aren’t giving it too much water, make sure your soil is draining properly as well, since it could just be retaining too much of the water you’re giving it.
Dang, it’s hot here
Especially if it’s summer, it’s also very possible that the plant is feeling the high temperatures and just showing signs of heat stress. In that case, exhibiting droopy leaves can mean the plant is trying to conserve water as much as possible. When plants get super hot, the turgor pressure in their cells decreases, causing leaves to droop. This droopiness reduces the amount of leaf surface exposed to the sun, which in turn slows down transpiration (the loss of water to the atmosphere) and helps the plant conserve the water it has on hand. So again, maybe give it a drink (or not, if you think you might be overwatering), move it into some shade if possible, and see if it perks back up after the heat of the day.
Get your vitamins and nutrients
More rarely, it could be some sort of nutrient issue in your soil. Severe shortages, especially of potassium or phosphorus, can affect water movement and the way the leaves look. Fertilizing too much can also cause issues like salt stress when excess salts draw water out of the roots of your plant. If you’ve recently fertilized or otherwise amended the soil around your plant, make sure you didn’t inadvertently cause some sort of imbalance you need to now correct.
