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Rosemary is an aromatic plant of great popularity throughout the world, much loved in all kinds of gardens thanks to its fresh aroma and great rusticity, as well as its great culinary uses as a spice and even its medicinal properties.
However, although it is a very strong and resistant plant, there are many who cannot understand why rosemary dies no matter how hard they try to grow it at home. If you want to learn about why does rosemary dry out and also what are the main care of rosemary when it has this problem and thus recover it, join us in this Green Ecologist article.
Indoor or outdoor
This is one of the main causes of rosemary drying out. To understand why rosemary tends to dry out indoors, you have to see what its natural environment is. This plant has its origin in Mediterranean climates, so it is used to relatively arid environments, with a lot of sun and little water. In fact, it can withstand temperatures of up to 40 ºC in full sun, and even -20 ºC from time to time and depending on the variety.
However, if it can handle all that range of temperatures, you may be wondering something like: how is it possible that the rosemary on my window dries out? It's simple, rosemary is an outdoor plant. It is possible to grow it in a pot, but it always needs outdoor locations, with a lot of sunstroke. Placing it indoors, next to a window or near a light source, is probably not enough no matter how hard you try to open the window for a while every day.
If you like plants of this type, suitable for being outdoors and in an area with plenty of sun, we encourage you to learn about these guides on Garden plants with sun-resistant flowers and Outdoor potted plants.
Lack of drainage
Although it is not at all a demanding plant, having a well-drained soil is one of the best guarantees of not encountering a sick rosemary. In its natural environment this plant is never subjected to flooding, so you should do everything possible to avoid flooding also in your rosemary cultivation at home. Some tips for this are:
- If you plant rosemary in the garden and your soil is clay, you probably have drainage problems often. Water abundantly in the area where you plan to plant and watch where the water collects over the next few hours to get a better idea of where the water collects and where it does not. You can also choose to plant it in an elevated area, since water tends not to accumulate in them due to the simple action of gravity.
- Another way to improve soil drainage is to add lots of organic matter in the form of compost, worm castings, or bokashi.
- In a pot, make sure the container has drainage holes and prepare a light, drained mix. You can use the universal recipe with equal parts coconut fiber, worm hummus and peat, with a good handful of perlite and vermiculite.
- If you have a plate under the pot, be sure to empty it ten minutes after watering, although it is best not to put a plate on it.
Excess irrigation
Even if your rosemary is in well-draining soil, over-watering will also stress it from excess moisture. Yes rosemary dries underneath, it is likely that it is due to an excess of irrigation that has caused the rotting of the roots or the attack of the fungi.
In this case, let the soil dry completely before watering it again, especially if it happens during the cold months.
How to save a rosemary that is drying
Do you wonder how to rescue a plant that is drying up? The main thing will be identify the cause, among those described above, which is causing your rosemary to not be in good condition. However, there are some universal measures to take if you are not sure what is going on.
- The first thing is, if it is potted rosemary, move it to a location as bright as possible, preferably outdoors. The incidence of light must be direct, without sifting through curtains or other obstacles.
- The following will be stop watering. Rosemary tolerates drought very well and excess moisture very poorly, so it is much more likely that the problem is the latter rather than the former. Stick a finger or a toothpick in the substrate: if you see that the soil is damp beyond the first layer, you should not water it again yet.
- It can also be of great help to carry out a sanitation pruning. Normally, rosemary does not necessarily need pruning, but if it is growing too thick or dense, the environment of humidity or closeness is favored, which gives rise to the attack of fungi. Keep it airy and clear and take the opportunity to give it the way you prefer it to grow. Here you can read more about when to prune rosemary and how to do it.
- Finally, it is possible that your rosemary belongs to one of the varieties that do not tolerate intense cold or frost. If this is the case and the climate in your area is cold in winter, you will have no choice but to move it or transplant it indoors in those months, always trying to give it plenty of light and aeration as much as possible and returning it to the outside as soon as the frosts pass. Here you can find out what the different types of rosemary are.
Now that you know the reasons why rosemary is dry and how to help it, we encourage you to read these other guides on this plant: How to plant rosemary and How to care for a potted rosemary plant.
If you want to read more articles similar to Why does rosemary dry out, we recommend that you enter our category of Cultivation and care of plants.
