English ivy or just ivy is a popular plant for outdoor use because it makes a nice shady groundcover. It’s also your number one choice for an easy houseplant to grow.
Whether your ivy is growing outside or indoors, sometimes the ivy leaves can start turning dry and brittle. Discover the top 7 reasons behind it and effective solutions to revive your drying out ivy plant.
What are the most common causes for English Ivy to dry up?
The common reasons why your English Ivy begins to dry up and turn yellow or brown are overwatering, using too much fertilizer, being in direct sunlight, spider mites, low humidity and high temperatures. Overwatering leads to root rot, while too much fertilizer can burn the leaves. Bright direct sunlight and dry air can cause leaf edges to brown. Addressing these factors can help get your English ivy plants looking green again.
If you’re still having a hard time keeping your ivy alive, think about your plant’s age, where do you keep it and what’s the watering schedule like.
In this post, you’ll learn more about the common reasons behind iny drying out and how to adjust the growing conditions to make it thrive!
1. Overwatering and poor drainage
That’s the most common reason why ivy leaves are turning brown. Ivy likes to grow in slightly dry soil so if you’re overwatering your plant, the plant roots will get too wet which can lead to a fungal disease – root rot.
It destroys the roots of the so your ivy won’t get enough nutrients and water from the soil which results in leaves browning and drying out on the edges.
Many people mistaken dry and brown leaves for a lack of watering and start to water more which makes the matters worse. Try to stick to these rules when watering your plant:
- let the soil dry out before you water your ivy plant
- the top inch of soil in the pot should be dry to touch
Also, it’s very important to get a pot with a drainage hole and make sure that it doesn’t get clogged.
TIP: put a piece of a wire mesh at the bottom of the pot to keep the drainage hole unclogged!
The goal is to keep a potting mix in your pot a little bit dry and don’t let your ivy sit in a standing water or overly wet soil.
2. Using too much fertilizer
Although outdoor ivy plants don’t need fertilizing, it’s a good idea to fertilize an ivy houseplant with a nitrogen-rich fertilizer. However, timing is crucial here because too much fertilizer can build up in the potting mix and burn the edges of ivy leaves making them dry and crispy.
When do you need to fertilize your indoor ivy?
When new growth appears – in spring, summer and fall. Don’t fertilize in winter! You ivy will be in the dormant period and won’t need as much nutrients at this time.
How often do you need to fertilize your indoor ivy?
Fertilize your ivy once a month.
3. Placing ivy in direct sunlight
Ivy grows in medium to bright light depending on whether you have a variegated (differently colored leaves) version or all green variety. None of the ivy types can tolerate direct sunlight.
You need to pay special attention to a baby ivy plant. It’s easy to burn it so move it away from a bright direct light. It’s not the best idea to keep a young ivy plant on a windowsill the whole day.
Keep in mind that if you keep your houseplant ivy in a darker location, it will slow its growth and if it’s really dark, your plant will not like it and might eventually start dying.
4. Dry air and drafts
Ivy plants thrive in moderate humidity (when the air is moist). They can do well in normal low levels of humidity that most homes have but very dry air can provoke the browning of edges of leaves.
Make sure that you provide enough air circulation for your ivy plants which means that you need to avoid overcrowding. You can put your ivy plant in the bathroom.
Also, a good idea is to get a mister and keep it next to your plant. Every time you pass by you can spray your plant giving it some extra moisture.
Or you can just use an old school humidity tray method. All you need is a saucer and pebbles. There are 2 ways to make your own humidity tray:
- Add pebbles to a saucer and cover them with water, then set your pot with an ivy plant on top of the pebbles
- Wet pebbles or perlite and put them in a saucer. Set your ivy plant on the top of wet pebbles or perlite.
The water will evaporate, raising the humidity around your plant. I personally prefer second method as it’s unlikely that your plant will end up standing in water.
5. Keeping temperature too high
It’s important to remember that ivies prefer cool to moderate temperatures. They are originally from central and norther Europe where ivies grow in cool climates.
Therefore, hot room temperatures can be damaging to these plants. Try to keep the temperature from 50 to 70 °F during the day and about 5 to 10 °F lower at night.
It’s a good idea to put your ivy plant in a separate room or a kitchen, somewhere where it can stay cool.
6. Pests (spider mites) infestation
Although pest infestations are rare when you keep your ivy plant outdoors, it can happen. Most of the time there are two reasons why it happens:
- your plant is underwatered
- you need to give your plant a wash
When your plant doesn’t get enough water, it is under stress. That’s when it’s most prone to pest infestations and diseases.
Also, if you don’t give your plant a regular wash, the dust and pests can accumulate on and behind the leaves.
The most common pest of ivy plant is spider mites. They are tiny and black – you can recognize them by little webs under the leaves.
Spider mites suck the juices in the plant leaves which can make your ivy leaves look dry and brown.
Washing your ivy plant periodically will help to prevent issues with pests. All you need to do it put your plant in the shower and let the water run over the plant for a few minutes.
If you’ve noticed spider mites, grab a spray bottle and spray your ivy plant with a solution of warm water and a few drops of dish-washing liquid.
7. Building up of minerals
We’ve talked about the build-up of nutrients when you’re using too much fertilizer. Similarly, if you’re using tap water that is high in mineral salts, these salts can accumulate in the soil.
Build-ups of salts in soil can burn the edges of your ivy plant resulting in dry and crispy leaves. Luckily, you can simply fix this issue!
Replant your affected ivy plant in new potting soil and from now on use only distilled water to water your plant.
Hope that you found this article useful and please feel free to share it on your social media!
Let me know in the comments section down below how do you manage to keep your ivy alive?
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Happy Growing 🙂
With Love,
Ana
