Hi all,
I have some wave petunias in a planter on my deck. They aren't looking great though.
The flowers themselves look fine, but the stems are quite straggly and the leaves near the soil are going brown & falling off and some have kind of a whitish "film" on them??????
In this same pot is a lilac, with the petunias planted around the perimeter. The lilac is doing fine.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks :)
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I have nipped every branch back about 1/2" - 1" after I bought them, even before they went into the containers. I fertilize with 20-20-20 for roots and then 10-52-10 for blooms and alternate that every 2 weeks. I plantes containers mid May and the pots are full of leaves and blooms right now.
I still feel the lilac is sucking up alot of nutients and water. After the lilac finishes bloomimh cut off all dead bloom heads so the plant sets for next years blooms.
hmmmmm I have the same problems...each and every year I swear I WON'T get petunias this year but........on your advice I will drastically cut them back...cant look any worse...thanks for the info
About 3 weeks ago, I had to take some drastic measures to revive a large purple wave planter given to me at Mothers' Day. I was so root bound that water would just run out. I took the whole thing out (looked like a block of cement), cut it up like a pie and replanted the sections in other pots...I cut the long woody stems about 2-3" from the dirt. They are all in bloom again,..right to the base...and much bushier. I just took off the stems that were still struggling and overall the plant(s) are much healthier. It breaks my heart to do this but sometimes necessary. If it makes it easier for you, I put the nicer clippings in a vase of water on my patio table and some will root. Good luck Norm
How far down should I trim them back? Right to the dirt, or???
Thanks for your input!
sounds like mildew. When you nip off all the end of flowers and buds and water under the leaves they should come back nicer than before.
Also when you dead head the old flowers make sure you nip the whole thing so a seed pod does not form.
Are you fertilizing every 2 weeks as watering leeches out the nutrients through the hole in the bottom of the pot and you have to renew with fertizilzer and the lilac is probably using all the nutrients.
The white filmy stuff is mildew, and it is also what helps to make them straggly. I cannot help, being a constant victim of this myself :-(( one reason I have a love-hate relationship with petunias! But generally it means thye are getting too wet. Maybe, as Smoodgie suggested, too much water on the elaves when they are being watered.
I'm not a gardening expert, so this is just a guess -- maybe the leaves are either not getting enough sun, or maybe they're getting too wet from when you water the planter?? Just a couple of things to consider....
As for the straggly stems, I think what you need to do is nip the tops of all of them. It's hard to do, especially when you have flowers & buds on the stem, but nipping them back usually makes the plants bushier and the stems won't get so long & straggly. The good things is, petunias grow new buds really quick, so it won't be long before you have a whole new crop of buds and flowers :)
Good luck!!