Peppermint plant has become weak and leaves are browning.

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smcgarden Las Cruces, NM Sep 04, 2011

About April of this year this mint plant was extremely healthy - its leaves were dark green and it was growing very vigilantly. It continued growing giving me occasional harvests for tea, salads and so forth. However, sometime around the beginning of August the leaves started turning lighter green and the plant seemed to wilt a bit. Now many of the leaves are brown and the result is in the picture below. I live in Las Cruces, New Mexico and it has been quite hot since mid-July. Could it just be heat? I have tried to keep the soil moist, but occasionally letting it dry out. I have always been told, "mint will just TAKE OVER if you don't watch it...." Well so far I have had this mint plant for 2 - 3 years and it hasn't ever grown more than about 5 - 6 inches tall. Anyone have any suggestions?

I would really appreciate some advice!

P.S. The plant is on a west facing balcony and gets PLENTY of sun here.

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Sep 04, 2011

It only takes over if you plant it in the garden--in a container it won't grow nearly as well. My guess is it's some combination of heat & watering issues. Even if you're watering it enough, sitting in a pot in full sun can be tough on plants--it basically cooks their roots so you might find that it does better if you can give it some shade during the hottest part of the day. It also may be time for a new pot--if it's been in that same pot the whole time you've had it chances are it's getting rootbound, and when you've got tons of roots relative to the amount of soil it becomes hard to give them enough water.

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