I placed my lemon balm out on a cloudy day. With no direct sunlight. I thought it would be ok.
(I learned the hard way a month ago when I exposed it to direct sunlight and came back to a really limp plant)
It looked ok when I brought it in in the evening. The next morning there were quite a number of brown leaves.
Is it lack of watering? I water it every night and has been fine until now.
I'm no expert, and may not know alot. But moving a plant's location to a different spot 'too often' can make it unhappy. If a plant is moved to a new spot, it will look unhappy for up to about 2-8 weeks. But if kept in that new spot (providing it is in the correct lighting/temperatures) it will eventually look healthy again.
If you push your finger into the soil, down about 1/2 - 1 inch, and it feels completely dry then water it.
Also... this type of plant may not have been used to frequent wind or longer times of direct sunlight.
But I hope others 'chime-in' and give their opinion as well, as I said before I'm no expert :]
This message was edited Jul 12, 2011 12:37 AM
It does look sun burnt. Like we humans, plants can be sun burnt if it hasn't been out in the sun before. Try moving it slowly from a shady spot into more direct sun. Move it a bit each day and watch the watering. You can try pinching it back a little, too. That will help make it bushier.
How did it look after giving it a drink that first time in the sun?
Love forests - I move my indoor plants out on weekends for some sun. As that is the only time I can do some gardening. Before I water them I always check the dampness of the soil as you said. It's just a shock that the brown leaves developed overnight. Pretty sad about it but I pruned them and nothing else has developed after that.
kwanjin - After that limp ordeal I've never placed it in direct sun ever. By pinching you mean cutting of the legs right? The longer tendrils I mean. Yeah just did that after the burnt incident. After a good watering it proped up great. I have a cutting that I replanted with little or no roots. It's been doing fine.
Thanks for the reply. Was worried.
Brown leaves developing overnight,... may mean the plant experienced a hotter temperature than it was used to, or direct sunlight hit the leaves longer than the plant was used to. Also may have been a windy day. Thats all I can think of.
Trimming long branches from a plant, cut them to about half the length, but just above a set of leaves.
Regrowth can take forever with some plants, especially if the temperature is not at the optimum for that plant.
Khooleo, yes, cutting back the longer bits. They get leggy like that because they need more sun. It sounds like you took care of it. I love the smell of Lemon Balm. A little bit of heaven.
kwanjin - that's a bit of a dilemma, my pot is placed in the airwell which gets sunlight from about 1.00 pm to 4.00 p.m. Direct sunlight literally drains it so do I have to find some midway solution? Even in the airwell it doesn't get direct sunlight.
I used the lemon balm leaves for pickling my cucumbers in gherkins. It IS Heavenly lah.
Could you try rigging a little canopy for it?
How about an open umbrella? Maybe i'll try acclimatizing it slowly. :s
A great idea!
