Why Is My Curry Leaf Plant Turning Brown?


Curry leaves plant are mainly known for their aroma and native to Asia. This plant is also called sweet neem, though Murraya koenigii is a different family for neem. Curry leaves mainly used in India especially for curries.

curry leaf plant turned brown

Curry Leaf plant turning brown, due to lack of humidity (spray splashes of water daily to solve). other could be aphids that look smaller than 1/8 inch, by peach, melon, and foxglove aphids (Apply insecticidal soap or horticulture oil to kill), powdery mildew (white substance on leaves apply sulfur and horticulture oil fungicides to solve).

Update: My curry leaf plant got new shoots and leaves after it turned to brown.

curry leaf plant

Here is the causes for curry leaf plant turning brown.

1. Lack of humidity

splash the water to leaves daily to increase the humidity. Lack of humidity seems the real culprit of browning tips, edges, brown stem. you should see the results of leaves returning to normal in few weeks. Don’t splash excessively only you should dampen the leaves.

2. Affected by aphids

check the backside of the leaves for aphids that looks smaller than 1/8 inch. Curry leaf plants also affected by peach, melon, and foxglove aphids looking for tiny things examine the leaf for small white skins and honeydew. Ants also may present due to honeydew. Due to the production of honeydew curry leaves will not grow properly and leads to the brown or yellow color of tips of leaves, Apply insecticidal soap or horticulture oil to kill these.

3. Affected by thrips

If the curry leaf plant is affected by the thrips which commonly feed on the foilage of curry plants, you can check for thrips by placing white cloth or paper under the leaves and shakes the stem slightly. the insects will drop on paper or cloth, they are thin and very light in colour their damage seems in silver, brown colour in leaves. Apply insecticidal soap or horticulture oil to kill these.

4. Powdery mildew

check the leaves for the white small substance called powdery mildew. It can attack curry leaf plants, leading to distorted and discolored foilage. White spots on leaves are always present, yellowish-brown spots may appear at the tips and throughout the entire body of leaves when the disease is severe. Applying sulfur and horticulture oil fungicides before powdery mildew is present helps prevent the disease.

5. Winter Dormacy

Curry leaves plants will go to a resting state in the winter season which is commonly known as winter Dormancy.

Curry leaf plant doesn’t get full sunlight due to winter; Due to low temperature (more cooling), the major problem is for leaves.

Leaves may turn to yellow color (chlorosis). This is one of the signs that it is moving to the Winter Dormancy state.

Due to more cold, all leaves may fall down from the plant and there may be no leaves left in the plant (the only stem is left in the plant), This is one of the common things regarding Curry leaf plant in winter Season. To fix this here you go.

Preparing Curry plant for Winter Dormacy

1. Cut down on watering until the winter season ends

The major thing you need to consider cut down the watering to plant until the winter season end.

This will help the plant to stay in resting state.

2. Move your plant Indoor

If you move your plant to indoor or increase the temperature by any means you can save the curry leaves in the plant.

The better option is to move the plant indoors and place it near the south-facing window. This will give a warm temperature and enough sunlight to plant.

If you cannot take the plant indoor for any reason. At least try to cover the pot (roots), with some black cover or something this increases temperature by 5 degrees, compared to outside.

3. Increase the temperature

Increase the temperatures of plants, slow down the winter Dormancy period, and save the curry plant’s leaves.

Place the curry leaves plant in sunlight during the day and at night you can take it indoors to protect from cold.

If you forget to take plant inside, it will die no matter what ever you take care after that. So be cautious to not to forget.

If there are no leaves in the curry plant and only the stem is left, you need to take care of the plant. Otherwise, the plant may die.

You can increase the temperature of the plant by moving your plant inside and giving enough sunlight by keeping it near the window.

If that is not possible, you need to cover the plant with a black cover to decrease the plant’s temperature by 5 degrees compared to the outside temperature.

If you cannot give enough sunlight to plant inside, these full spectrum led light lamps are available for rescue. Click here for the link in amazon [For valid purchases we may earn commission from amazon, Our recommendation is not the costliest gadget but we suggest the good one]. These lamps can be used for other plants, and have many functionalities like timer and you can change light sensitivity.

If you are travelling or out home for some days, request a willing friend to take care of your plant.

4. Pour the warm water instead of cold water

This will help the keep up the temperature of curry leaves plant.

Tips:

  1. Feed Curry leaf plant with a tablespoon of Epsom salt (which contains magnesium)/ baked salt into yogurt or 1 gallon of water twice a month (every 15 days) to improve the plant growth. If you overdose you will burn the plant. (My grandmother taught this.)
  2. Feed buttermilk to plant during warmer months to improve growth ( when there is no mold).
  3. cut the seed-bearing part to get new shoots and leaves grow healthily.

FAQ

Q. Why Is My Curry Leaves Plant Not Growing?

A. Curry leaves Plant not growing, due to its winter dormancy (the plant is getting ready for winter season), less exposure to sunlight, or low temperature. The other reasons will be improper soil, over or underwater for plants. These are usually grown slowly.

Q. Why Is My Curry Leaves Plant Turning Yellow?

A. Curry leaf plant turns yellow mainly because of two reasons, chlorosis  plant have iron, manganese, zinc or nitrogen deficiency. Other reason, during winter season plant leaves may turn yellow. This tells us that plant is about to go to winter dormacy and might loose it’s leaves.

Q. Why Is My Curry Leaf Plant Losing Its Leaves?

A. Curry leaf plants lose their leaves mainly due to its winter dormancy (the plant is getting ready for the winter season), less exposure to sunlight, or low temperature. The other reasons will be improper soil, over or underwater for plants to lose curry leaves.

Q. Why is my curry leaf plant shedding leaves?

A. Curry leaf plants shed their leaves mainly due to its winter dormancy (the plant is getting ready for winter season), less exposure to sunlight, or low temperature. The other reasons will be improper soil, over or underwater for plants to shed curry leaves.

Q. Why is my curry leaves plant drooping?

A. Curry leaf plant’s leaves droop as they die, normally you think your plant is not getting enough water, but here too much watering smoothened the roots. To overcome this allows the soil to dry out overnight (completely) and use a thin stick to poke holes around the surface of the soil to help aerate (don’t damage the roots).

Conclusion:

However, now my plants started growing at a decent pace, New shoots came out from the bottom of the plant (near the bottom stem you can observe in pic).

Let me know in comments did you succeed in growing your plant again.

Harshavardhan

I love and passionate about gardening. All these started a few years back, planting, watering plants, and helping the plants grow without any diseases. I enjoy spending time with plants, greenery which gives me peace of mind.

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