Image – Wikimedia/Plenuska
Rue is a herbaceous plant used both in cooking and in traditional medicine. In fact, you can use it both to make sauces, and to make an infusion with its dried leaves to relieve the symptoms of hemorrhoids or stomach pain, for example, although it is important not to use it. abuse, as it is toxic in high doses.
Therefore, it is a herb that can be a great ally for health, but… What happens when our dear street dries up? Can we do anything to get it back?
Why is the street drying up? The reality is that there are several possible causes. From poor watering, to excess fertilizer, to sudden exposure to the sun. Next we will talk about each of them:
Contents
over watering
When it is watered heavily, the roots of the rue eventually drown. Since, leaves and stems begin to dry, older leaves first (i.e. the lower ones)then the rest. In addition to this, one will also notice that the soil is very moist to the touch, and even verdina or, even worse, mold (white or gray powder) may appear, a clear sign that the fungi are already there.
What to do? In this situation, what we need to do is temporarily suspend watering and process the plant with a polyvalent spray fungicide (you can buy it here) every 15 days. Likewise, if it is in a pot, we will remove it from there and we will wrap the clod or the loaf of earth with absorbent paper, and we will leave it like this all night in a dry place sheltered from the sun and rain.
lack of watering
If the street does not receive water, it dries up, and if it is in a pot it will do this even faster than if it is planted in the ground, since the amount of soil available is much less, it loses l moisture in less time. Thereby we need to adjust the frequency of irrigation as temperatures change.
How to know if the plant is dehydrated? We will see that new leaves turn yellow then brown and soil looks drymaybe even cracked.
to get it back, we have to water If it is in a pot, put it in a container with water for about twenty minutes, and if it is in the ground, add about 2 or 3 liters of water, depending on the size of the plant (the the larger it is, the more you will need to add). From then on, we will water it more often so that it does not dry out any more.
Heavy dose of fertilizer
Image – Wikimedia/Petruss
It is strongly recommended to fertilize the plants, but if it must be done, You should always follow the manufacturer’s instructions for use which we will find on the product packaging. It is a mistake to think that if you add more quantity you will get better results, because what happens is quite the opposite: the roots suffer, and with them, also the leaves.
To know for sure if our street has this problem, we will see that its leaves have brown and/or reddish spots, or even turn yellow. You have to act as quickly as possible if you want to recover it, by watering it so that the excess fertilizer goes down, far from the roots.
Direct sun without prior acclimatization
Rue is a plant that should be in a sunny place from its youth. But If, for example, we always have it inside the house and at some point we take it out, it will burn since our plant is not used to it. always in full sun. The same thing would happen if we bought one from a nursery where they had protected it, and as soon as we arrived we left it in a sunny place.
Fortunately, this is a problem that has a simple solution: just move it to another place and start accustoming it to the sun little by little. How come? Leave it exposed to the rays of the King of Stars between 30 and 60 minutes each day, and gradually increase the exposure time over the weeks.
harmful
It is very hardy, but when not watered frequently enough it becomes very weak and can be attacked Mites like the red spider and white fly. Both are insects that feed on the sap of leaves, especially young ones; In addition, the spider mite produces webs that are used to move from one part of the plant to another.
What to do? If we see a plague on the street, we can fight it with an ecological remedy, such as neem oil or diatomaceous earth (you can buy it here), of which we leave you a video:
As we have seen, there are several reasons why the rue can dry out. Therefore, it is important that proper care is given, as this reduces the risk of serious problems.