Despite taking good care of your English Ivy, if you find yourself asking, “Why is my English Ivy drying up?” these may be the reasons!
With a vining habit that can survive even in the shadiest corners, English Ivies are super sturdy plants but can occasionally succumb to certain factors, leading to yellowing of their foliage. Let’s learn the reasons and solutions below!
Why is My English Ivy Drying Up and What To Do About It?
1. Been Overwatering Your Ivy?
Though underwatering and overwatering can cause your English ivy to dry up, there are more chances that the latter may be the problem. When you overwater your ivy, you will see the leaves turning brown and getting drier on the edges. While this symptom may seem like your plant needs more water, it is actually the opposite.
In fact, it actually means that your plant is drowning and root rot may have set in. Ultimately, this leads to the plant not getting enough water or nutrients and drying out.
Solution:
First, let us tackle the problem of underwatering. If the soil has dried out a little too much, more than a couple of inches, it may be a good time to water. Since English ivy is a drought-tolerant plant, underwatering occasionally does not hurt the plant too much. However, overwatering does cause problems, as ivies do not tolerate wet soil.
If your English ivy has been drying out due to overwatering, first check the extent of the damage to the plant. Carefully remove all leaves which are severely damaged. This process helps your plant redirect its energy into the healthier parts. The next bit is carefully removing the plant from its pot and checking for rotten roots, which you must trim. You can distinguish these from other healthy, firm, and white roots. Then, you could consider repotting your plant in a fresh, well-draining medium. Ensure the pot you choose has drainage holes to prevent excess from accumulating at the bottom.
For the future, you must allow the soil to dry out a fair bit before watering. In fact, it would be safer to err on the drier side than making the soil too wet.
2. Dry Air and Ivy Don’t Match
English Ivy needs medium to high humidity levels, and arid climates can cause this plant to dry out. The dry air in our homes caused by heating systems often results in dry, crispy leaves in ivies. Plus, dry air can also make ivy plants susceptible to pests like spider mites that suck the color from the leaves.
Solution:
You can create a relatively high-humidity microclimate for your English ivy in several ways. The first one is, of course, a humidifier near your plant. You can start misting your plant more often. The third way is creating a pebble tray. Use a large shallow tray that would fit your plant well. Add in a layer of pebbles and pour in water that sits just below the top of the pebbles. The English ivy should never sit on the water but on the pebbles. Water evaporates from the tray, creating more humidity around the plant. Be sure to change the water weekly and clean the pebbles and the tray.
3. Too Much Light Exposure
If water is not the problem, your English ivy might dry out due to excessive sun exposure. If your English ivy is still young and you have placed it on a bright, sunny windowsill, you will inevitably see dried-out brown leaves. That is because young ivies are quite sensitive to bright, direct light. Though English ivy likes the direct early morning sunlight, it needs filtered-out light for the rest of the day.
Solution:
English ivy prefers bright, indirect sunlight. In summer, they especially need filtered-out sunlight; otherwise, their leaves would burn. If your English ivy has been drying out due to excess sun exposure, shift your plant near an east-facing window or a few feet back from a south- or west-facing window. You could also add sheer curtains to block out any direct sunlight.
4. You Have Fed Your Ivy Way Too Much!
Too much of a good thing is always bad, which is true for plant food. If you have been overfertilizing your English ivy, you will start seeing brown tips on the leaves. While ivy plants grown outdoors need less fertilizing than the ones grown indoors, it could be your overenthusiasm in providing more food to your ivy that could be causing it to dry up. Plus, overexposure to chemicals has never been good for plants.
Solution:
If you have your English ivy indoors, you should feed it every two weeks during spring and summer growing season with a balanced houseplant fertilizer. Ensure that you dilute it to half the recommended strength. During the fall and winter, you should fertilize your plant monthly. Avoid fertilizing your English ivy if the temperature is extremely hot or cold.
5. Pesky Spider Mites
As mentioned above, spider mites generally seek out your English ivy if the air is too dry. But besides dry air, these pests start sucking the color out of your ivy leaves, leaving them brown and dry. If you find too many dry leaves on your English ivy, you could be dealing with an infestation that manifests as webs among the vines.
Solution:
Fortunately, the spider mite problem is quite easy to address. All you have to do is apply a 50/50 solution of water and ethanol, that is, rubbing alcohol wherever you see spider mite webs to get rid of these pests. Ensure that you are doing this when it’s not too hot, and your ivy is not receiving any direct sunlight.
