What to Do for an Overwatered Plant

Confusing Symptoms

• Symptoms of overwatering can look like symptoms of other problems -- including drought stress -- so you have to check the entire plant to find every possible clue as to what’s going on. Symptoms of both too much and not enough water are leaves dropping (even when young), brown leaf tips and wilting. Even soft, rotting roots can result from both overwatering and “excessive dryness,” notes The Ohio State University Extension.

Diagnosis

• Assessing how badly the plant is damaged is essential. If you see just a little wilting, monitor the plant to see how it responds to proper care over a couple of weeks. Plants whose roots have nearly rotted through are a loss, however. And if you see any mold or other foreign material on the plant, it may be too late to do anything, except prevent the disease’s spread.

Possible Actions

• The first -- and obvious -- step is to reduce the water supply to the plant. This may be difficult if the excess water is due to unusually heavy rains that have overwhelmed your yard’s drainage system. If the water supply is controllable, let the soil dry out a bit and drain out excess water from the bottom of the pot, if applicable. Do not start watering again until the soil has reached the point where it is normally recommended you water for that particular plant. For example, some plants need water only when the soil is completely dry, while others just need the top layer to dry out. Also test the soil to see if the extra water has washed out too many nutrients; you might need to add fertilizer to bring the soil back to a healthy state.

Cautions

• If the overwatering has resulted in fungi or other pathogens that you can’t get rid of in outdoor plants, check with a garden center or county/university extension about what to do with the soil. If the plant is just a small container plant that is separate from the rest of your garden, you can throw it out. If the plant was in the ground, though, you might not be able to plant anything else in that spot for a few years. Even disposing of the soil isn’t a surefire way to eliminate all pathogens because some could have spread further from the plant than you think. That also means you have to check plants that were right next to the infected plant to ensure that nothing transferred onto the other plants’ leaves.