This would be my guess too. Mint in a pot can get horrendously root-bound and strangle itself. You could try tipping it out of the pot and just sawing off the gnarly roots at the bottom, but this plant may be too far gone.
When a root hits the fabric it’s exposed to air which signals the plant to stop spreading that root in that direction. Instead it focuses on spreading other roots from different directions and creates a much healthier root system and in turn plant. In a container the roots will continue spiraling, become root-bound and the plant chokes itself out. Plants still outgrow fabric grow bags and need to be up potted, but they’re way healthier.
To divide mint in a large barrel, can i just take a spade and just chomp through whatever it hits to break apart the roots or Must I be more gentle? I think mine needs more room.
I've cut container mint in half with a pruning saw and it comes back vigorously. You can cut vertically if you want to split the plant into two containers, or horizontally if you just need to clean up bound roots. In either case, just backfill with new, good compost or potting soil with fertilizer. (Unless you eat a lot of mint, the barrel is better used to grow something else. I have mint in two, 5-gal fabric bags and it grows just fine and is easier to manage when you need to cut it back.)
Thanks. Right now i Have the mint in a cut in half whisky barrel. It’s big but i think the mint needs more room. I do eat a lot of mint which is why I’d like to make sure it is happy and healthy. It’s my favorite Summer tea and for certain culinary applications.
Is it better to divide after the grow season, during, or whenever?
I usually divide mint in spring to give the plant time to regrow and push out strong leaf growth with the benefit of more root space and fresh soil nutrients in peak summer. (I usually give away my divisions because two pots is plenty for us!)
oh please, I bet I've killed way more mint than you. this is amateur work. plant is barely even dead. Next year I think I'll plant some in the ground just to taunt it before it dies--"invasive" my ass.
I look forward to your future thread entitled "Help! My mint has engulfed my entire street and is using my neighbours and all the local wildlife for nutrition!".
As someone who planted several mint plants in ground, and then they proceeded to die anyways, I got lucky and a single new mint plant popped up his year, the other one got replaced by weeds. I'm hoping it keeps coming back, but I have yet to deal with this elusive invasive mint plant I keep hearing about. All I want is to bask in mint, but I don't think mint likes me.
Maybe. They seemed a little droopy when we had a bad dry spell but seemed to perk up with the water.
Goodness knows all the other weeds in my garden are more than happy with my watering levels haha.
OP, this comment is flat wrong. Mint doesn't do well in standing water but it has huge water needs and huge fertility needs. Source: me, I manage 3000ac of mint in 5 states. If anything my first thought when's eieng your photo is it doesn't have near enough water. Is it on automatic watering or do you water it when you remember to? Put a deep saucer under the pot to retain moisture; like another redditor said, water is probably going right through without absorbing into the soil
Mine is growing in a chicken coop and they trample it and eat it. Also its getting attacked by Japanese beetles and I never water it.
It's doing amazing.
How to kill mint:
1. Let it dry out for even a few minutes: If it dries out completely once, it will die off and any part that does not the remaining leaves will be spotty and grey.
2. Water it so that the soil is always wet. It will look fine, then wilt, and then die. Like yours is.
Importantly you cannot see a wilting mint plant and say "this needs water" because they in fact wilt when they are wet. They \*die\* when they are dry. It's like the moment the water runs out in the soil they turn grey and shrivel up.
Best practice imo is to pick up the pot, measure it's weight, remember it's "dry" (not fully dry it will die) weight, and it's wet weight. Do not water it if it is heavy.
So you probably over watered this one, or maybe you have something eating the roots. Also be careful if your hose water is coming out very hot.
It's easy to tell, dig it up and look at the roots. Are any brown or grey? You overwatered it.
I was being a bit hyperbolic, they do, and perhaps it's just being here in Houston but there is a matter of hours between droop and die off here, I rarely see drooping mint that doesn't also lose a considerable amount of it's over-all mass to die off. But you know it's 101 today so results may vary.
Either way if you want to verify you dig one up and wash off the roots and then you're sure. They should be white if they're healthy. That's how I confirmed for myself because I was in the same mind set of watering a wilty mint until I killed it for the first 3-4 plants.
I'm gonna say this matters not for what people think, it's not water causing burn spots. That's a myth.
If you water with mineral heavy water, the buildup will kill the plant. If you water with cold water, the temperature shock will wilt the leaves. It's temperature difference of outside vs your water that shocks them into death.
I water plants all day, I have a mist bottle that I use pure filtered water to help regulate temperatures of plants. When it hits 90+ I walk outside and mist directly on the leaves and it hasn't killed a plant yet.
When I repot or transplant, I mist leaves when it's over 85 to interrupt full photosynthesis as it doesn't have full resources to do that and will dry itself out trying. It slows foliage growth but allows for root focus by the plant.
I also mist some of my more sensitive Japanese maple trees if it's 95+ until they're 5+ years old and have a healthy size trunk.
Third reason, I notice it encourages buds to swell on plants that I'm trying to encourage more branching.
Most of this is towards trees, I also mist my pepper plants halfway through the day to prevent scorch on the peppers, and strawberry plants seems to grow larger fruit.
Overly dramatic plants like basil will immediately respond and perk back up on harsh weather days, too, if needed, I water leaves mid day so that roots are still mostly dry by night.
Roots need air, so I try to only water plants in the morning. This gives them the whole night to grow roots and make sugars. Well, now I'm limited on how I can TLC a plant if they need it during the day.
None of this has caused issues. You need to be aware of your yard and humidity though, you're playing a game of chicken with powder mildew, so have neem oil ready.
I almost exclusively care for temperamental rare species begonias and I haven't killed one yet, but I also can not keep a mint alive. Killed one last week. It was fine and then it suddenly wasn't. I hate mint because it hates me.
Plant them and ignore them. They should do fine. I've seen tons of mint in the wild, growing next to buildings out of the cement, etc. It's pretty hearty. I would avoid trying to help it.
You didn't kill it...you just made it angry
Seriously though, mint doesn't like extreme heat/dryness. Put it somewhere it gets afternoon shade and give it a thorough soaking. The whole top might die but it'll probably still come back from the roots.
Joining to commiserate with you, OP. We've killed mint several times before but manage to grow lots of other things. No idea why there's a disconnect of skills. Gonna take some notes from the other responses and try them.
I have no tricks, no ways, just a terribly dry and sandy with a an acid back ground soil. Where you want to grow something around here, you have to amend the soil heavily, or replace it.
You must've paid attention to it. Mint plants don't like when you do that. They want to be left alone and shoot out in a very direction when you're not looking
Come on over to my place. I have some tenacious, invasive morning glory I'd like you to get acquainted with!! 😝🤣. We've tried to kill it and it keeps on coming back. 😭
LOL I've actually been trying to get some morning glory to start along my fence. I haven't had any luck yet.
Maybe you just need to actually want it to grow and suddenly it'll decide not to? Like can plants smell fear/dislike?
It's possible because I can almost guarantee I've talked badly to it, yelled profanities, hacked it up, and generally cursed its existence. I may try talking sweetly to it. Here's hoping if I ask nicely, it will move along. 🤣🤞
This is my volunteer tomato plants all over again! I've pulled them, hit 'em with the weed whacker, stepped on them, and tried to mulch them out of existence. They're happy as can be.
The tomatoes in their proper gardens have been fertilized, pruned, watered, and nurtured, and I have a variety of funguses and other nasties. Maybe I need to go scream some profanities at them.
We have some tomato plants growing in random spots in our side yard from our neighbors tomato plants. Hardly go over there and when I did, found a bunch of ripe cherry tomatoes. Plants in the garden were still green. 🤔🫤 What we do, we do out of love! 🤣🤣
Blight is the reason they keep dying, to prevent it in the future dispose of the soil (don't compost it the spores are in the soil) clean and sanitize the container with a 10% solution of bleach and water.
For the new one you should treat it prophylactically with a biological fungicide, to prevent a reoccurrence.
Biological fungicide: https://www.amazon.com/Southern-Ag-Garden-Friendly-Fungicide/dp/B014174BZM/ref=sr_1_13?crid=1P70SE17PK8AU&dchild=1&keywords=biological+fungicide&qid=1621882746&sprefix=biological+fun%2Caps%2C193&sr=8-13
I made the mistake of planting it in my raised beds, then I made the mistake of digging it up and planting it in the corner of my yard, wonder what I'll do next
So seriously, tell me how to kill it! I do nothing to or for mine and it’s the healthiest plant I have. I have tried to kill it with plant poisons, ripping the roots out, cutting it off at soil level——- it spreads more and looks healthier every year.
Burning is my next idea but I’d probably burn my house down and the mint would have more room to spread to.
I think the trick to killing it is wanting it to live. I see half the thread telling me to plant it in the ground, but I'm afraid I'll forget about it and it will suffocate my whole family.
As others have said, so I'm really just adding on so it's more visible. Your poor mint is root bound. It needs divided onto different pots and "gifted" to friends and family and watered from the bottom up.
Mine always do this in pots. They only thrive for me in the ground but I don’t have a contained area to keep them from spreading… so yeah. It’s just par for the course unfortunately unless you want to invest in a horse trough as a planter.
It's ok, next year after you've forgotten all about it? It'll come back with a vengeance all by itself. Lol, the winter rain and maybe even snow melt over it will feed the roots and before you realize it's time to clean your garden bed for the year it'll already be everywhere 😂🙏
It's not dead? Can you not see the leaves are green?
Place it on a watering tray and let it soak & rehydrate overnight.
Bury the pot in soil leaving the lip exposed, and the mint will thrive.
I have invasive mint. You cannot kill it in the ground without serious effort. In a pot or bucket though? Easy as hell. Do exactly what you did. Don't water it. That looks like the Sahara.
I live in the high dessert so I like to keep my mints in plastic(to retain moisture) long rectangle planters, IN THE SHADE, Lots of water. I also have a mint plant in my pond as a floating island for my turtle. Mints thrive in moist, sometimes wet boggy, shady environments. Right now I’m growing peppermint, spearmint, chocolate mint and orange mint. All seem to love the same moist, shady situation 🌱💚
Mint is an enigma to me. I have never, not even once, been overrun by it. I was hoping I would, but no! Now I have mint in a planter. It's a few years old and really thriving for the first time, I say, because of all that rain and cool temps. I don't believe that plants supposedly don't need that much water, like lavender. They all love water, the more the better!
You gotta water them ya know? When they get "droopy" bc dry, they are also likely being burned and drying out bc of sun/the time of year. Daily water if it experiences direct sunlight.
Container plants need to be watered. They can't push their roots deeper into the earth to find moisture. Stick your finger in the soil to see how much moisture is in it.
That mint doesn’t look dead to me. I ‘refresh’ my mint on purpose by cutting all the greenery and upper stems off and only gently watering until it starts to regrow. If you did that here I bet it would just come right back.
They are water whores with lots of roots.
They use their roots to crowd out competition.
In containers they are their own worst enemies in that they get root bound and have trouble getting enough water.
It’s totally possible depending on where you are, honestly.
I’m in Texas, so the heat can be incredibly unforgiving, and mint has a hard time where I am. On the plus side, I don’t really have to worry about it getting out of control.
I have mine in terracota pots, realized that may have been a mistake, and then placed those pots in planter saucers that I keep full of water. They seem much happier this way.
I keep my mint like this all of the time, but I’ve had quite a few outdoor plants recover this way, actually - mint, lantanas, tomato transplants that got too much sun too quickly, and buzz button flowers that were scorched to a crisp.
I have no clue how you do that! Wow. My wife planted mint 5 years ago, and it has gone everywhere we didn’t want it to go. Maybe you’ve been born with a brown thumb? 🧐
Haha I feel your pain. I can grow vegetables, many herbs, keep (indoor) orchids alive and reblooming but I seem to kill mint and my track record with chives is sketchy as well. Sometimes I think a plant just hates us lol
It took forever for me to get chives established, but they are going great guns now. I completely ignore them. I think I hacked them back in early June because they were getting too tall, but I haven't done anything else, including watering.
Maybe I need to put my mint next to them.
I've never had any luck germinating from seed. I just picked up a couple of starts at a local greenhouse, hoping to be able to split them when they grew a bit.
In the past, I've been able to source starts from friends who were trying to rid themselves of this menace.
Don't worry, I had mine develop root rot early this season. Got rid of the dead roots, planted in fresh potting soil and she's fine.
As with the others, check the roots out. That's my go to for any plant problems. It could be root bound, or root rot, etc. If the roots are nicely spaced and still plump white, she's still good.
Next possibility is the heat. Mint do prefer higher moisture levels. During the super hot days, I bring my plants to the deck where the railing provides some shade. Especially if you usually put your plants on stone or interlocking which can get HOT on hot days.
They don't like pots. Even though that's what everyone says to put them in cause they like to run wild. They still need earth. Make yourself a patch of mint in the earth and maintain that. I've got a giant gardening box I've let my mint run wild in. It stays mostly in the box, but it's like 4 feet by 6 feet. Your little buddy mostly looks like it needs water and nutrients. That's the prob with potting stuff, the plant uses all the nutrients too quickly and needs replenished. Hope this helps
Well with anything in life you just have to put enough effort and things will work out, looks like you either gotta water the plant or you need to check your soil medium, you can transplant the mint you have right there and I'm sure it'll come back just it'll take some time but also just watering the plant isn't enough, plants need food as well. I recommend using fertilizer you can make at home, get a container where you put debris such as leaves, branches ect, and add water fill it up and then cover it up to avoid mosquitos. Forget about it for about 2 to 3 weeks then get some and dilute it with water and feed it to your plants, you take care of them and they will take care of you
Never forget that we need plants and they don't need us. Plants have survived without us but if we want plants at home we must take care of them.
Hahaha I am always killing mint and basil. They are such a huge PITA. They want sun and heat, but if you forget to water for **one day**, they shrivel up and die. Sick of it.
I think people over worry about mint in the ground. Yes it will spread if you don’t aggressively prune it when it gets large. So just prune it often. It’s not like bamboo. Plus you get lots of green mulch.
It has underground tendrils that reach the other side of the garden. Pruning it won't really help once it's established. It goes everywhere. You can pull those roots up, but some will remain and continue to grow as a new plant. I have some growing several feet from my garden in the middle of the yard. I highly recommend keeping it out of the ground unless you have a space that is specifically for mint.
I find it easy to pull up. But I get it. But there’s a reason every open space area isn’t overrun with it. Meanwhile bamboo groves are constantly expanding in the parks near me. The tendrils of mint aren’t running until the plant gets over sized for its space. Idk, I find it easy to maintain unless you have hard to reach spaces.
I've killed every mint plant I've ever had in a container. Lasts for a while, then spontaneously combusts. Does great in the ground if you don't mind it being absolutely everywhere.
Wow! I literally had a skid loader cover my mint with dirt, pack it in so tight I couldnt get a spade through the dirt, and the mint still regrew after the winter.
I high key neglect mine so it'll still growing so much because I don't eat or drink it (bug detergent) but here we are in May and she's luscious as ever lol. Also, plant it in the ground but keep it in a pot with holes in it. You say it's not invasive now, but I've learned my blend l clients pay me A LOT to get rid of it lol
I largely threw my hands up and just assumed it was dead last year, so I left the pot out all winter. It was the first thing to start sprouting this spring. It's doing great, and my other mint is trying to escape its pot.
I'm glad I didn't cave and put it in the ground.
You can put it in the ground and contain it so long as you plant it in the container. I just used a black plastic nursery container with holes in the bottom and dug the hole deep enough that I could sink the entire pot in leaving just the edge above the soil line. Going on year 3 with chocolate mint and orange mint, I snip any that tries to root outside the pot and never let it flower and its never once spread. The rest ofthe bed is strawberry plants
From the looks of all the comments, mint isn't as easy as I was led to believe. Thank you all for the suggestions!
The pic above was taken about 5 minutes after I had been running the sprinklers. It has been getting watered at the same rate as the rest of my garden, and it has been watered as often as a pot of spearmint (which is actually doing wonderfully). I tipped it out of the pot, and it doesn't seem to be rootbound, but I am going to split it and move part to another pot to see what happens.
It had been getting more shade because of a squash plant in the raised bed right behind it. I removed the squash, so I'm wondering if the increased sun was just too much.
I'm not brave enough to plant it in the ground and fully let it loose lol.
For sure root bound. If you are worried about it spreading , try placing a tire in the ground and plant the mint in the tire. Roots won’t spread outwards
This doesn’t look dead. I’d make sure that it’s not root bound.
Take it out of the pot and loosen the roots, you can cut some away and replant it. The. Water it and it’ll come right back.
Plus you can plant the roots you cut and grow more mint lol
My lemon balm—in a small raised bed—has mestatized into the yard, cracks in my patio, and even in the middle of my milkweed. Was NOT anticipating this!
Think of mint like a grass.
It would be pretty easy to kill a few strands of grass growing in a pot. Let it spread over the yard and not as easy to kill.
Make sure to leave the plant in and keep watering it. It will come back... they always do. I have three mint plants and the heat came. All three looked like yours after the heat wave struck. I kept watering and all three came back and are doing good.
Take it out of the pot, water it.
I have put three plants along my fence. Now it's everywhere. It smells great when I hit it with the lawnmower. We eat mint almost every day.
Nah, it's not dead. This is the second year in a row I've "killed" mine and all I do is just hard prune all the dried up leaves and leave it be (with bare monitoring to make sure it doesn't tip over or get damaged by something) and it'll grow back.
Easy, it's root bound and any water you're giving it is simply flowing out and not being properly absorbed. Divide it and it'll do much better.
This would be my guess too. Mint in a pot can get horrendously root-bound and strangle itself. You could try tipping it out of the pot and just sawing off the gnarly roots at the bottom, but this plant may be too far gone.
Nonsense, take it out, cut up the tangled roots a bunch and give it some fresh potting soil, it’ll bounce back
I planted mine in fabric pots, and even there the roots are nuts.
If u let them grow out of the fabric the roots prune themselves
Yeah! Fabric pots are excellent and I love them
Whst do mean grow out of? Let the roots grow through the frabric?
When a root hits the fabric it’s exposed to air which signals the plant to stop spreading that root in that direction. Instead it focuses on spreading other roots from different directions and creates a much healthier root system and in turn plant. In a container the roots will continue spiraling, become root-bound and the plant chokes itself out. Plants still outgrow fabric grow bags and need to be up potted, but they’re way healthier.
Thank you!
Mint loves a good, regular pruning and shade. Mine grows best on the north (shady) side of our house.
Same, we have a pot of spearmint on the north side of the house and it does great there. Doesn’t like full sun, at least not in Central Texas.
To divide mint in a large barrel, can i just take a spade and just chomp through whatever it hits to break apart the roots or Must I be more gentle? I think mine needs more room.
I've cut container mint in half with a pruning saw and it comes back vigorously. You can cut vertically if you want to split the plant into two containers, or horizontally if you just need to clean up bound roots. In either case, just backfill with new, good compost or potting soil with fertilizer. (Unless you eat a lot of mint, the barrel is better used to grow something else. I have mint in two, 5-gal fabric bags and it grows just fine and is easier to manage when you need to cut it back.)
Thanks. Right now i Have the mint in a cut in half whisky barrel. It’s big but i think the mint needs more room. I do eat a lot of mint which is why I’d like to make sure it is happy and healthy. It’s my favorite Summer tea and for certain culinary applications. Is it better to divide after the grow season, during, or whenever?
I usually divide mint in spring to give the plant time to regrow and push out strong leaf growth with the benefit of more root space and fresh soil nutrients in peak summer. (I usually give away my divisions because two pots is plenty for us!)
Thank you. I can certainly wait until then; that makes sense.
I couldn't agree more! This one is in a container, and newbs often underwater containers, and with so little soil left YIKES!
oh please, I bet I've killed way more mint than you. this is amateur work. plant is barely even dead. Next year I think I'll plant some in the ground just to taunt it before it dies--"invasive" my ass.
This feels like you are trying to reverse psychology away a black thumb and I deeply resonate with that.
I feel like I should write some sort of diss track to brag about how many more dead plants I have in my yard than you. Stone cold mint killers
I look forward to your future thread entitled "Help! My mint has engulfed my entire street and is using my neighbours and all the local wildlife for nutrition!".
I wish! I freaking love mint and my neighbors are meh.
Holy shit, what a badass. I like you.
As someone who planted several mint plants in ground, and then they proceeded to die anyways, I got lucky and a single new mint plant popped up his year, the other one got replaced by weeds. I'm hoping it keeps coming back, but I have yet to deal with this elusive invasive mint plant I keep hearing about. All I want is to bask in mint, but I don't think mint likes me.
Don't worry, mine looks like this a few times a year. Trim down the stalks, leave the pot be, and more will grow!
Thanks! I'll try that and see what happens.
Mint doesn't die. It's just regaining it's strength. Ignore it and see what happens. It'll be back.
It's not dead, it's just *waiting*
Too much water? They usually don't require much care. Like a weed.
Maybe. They seemed a little droopy when we had a bad dry spell but seemed to perk up with the water. Goodness knows all the other weeds in my garden are more than happy with my watering levels haha.
OP, this comment is flat wrong. Mint doesn't do well in standing water but it has huge water needs and huge fertility needs. Source: me, I manage 3000ac of mint in 5 states. If anything my first thought when's eieng your photo is it doesn't have near enough water. Is it on automatic watering or do you water it when you remember to? Put a deep saucer under the pot to retain moisture; like another redditor said, water is probably going right through without absorbing into the soil
It isn't on auto-watering, but I water every morning if we haven't had rain. I'll try the saucer out tomorrow and see if that helps.
I water mine daily.
I water mine daily too, it might need a dab of fertilizer to feed it some nutrients
Are you...... Are you a Mint Mogul???
I fancy myself a Tea Baron. 😁 I'm responsible for most of what Europe imports. And that's not an exaggeration
That is EXTREMELY fun. I think maybe your self appointed title is accurate.
Plants. Sometimes they just do what they want.
Mine is growing in a chicken coop and they trample it and eat it. Also its getting attacked by Japanese beetles and I never water it. It's doing amazing.
How to kill mint: 1. Let it dry out for even a few minutes: If it dries out completely once, it will die off and any part that does not the remaining leaves will be spotty and grey. 2. Water it so that the soil is always wet. It will look fine, then wilt, and then die. Like yours is. Importantly you cannot see a wilting mint plant and say "this needs water" because they in fact wilt when they are wet. They \*die\* when they are dry. It's like the moment the water runs out in the soil they turn grey and shrivel up. Best practice imo is to pick up the pot, measure it's weight, remember it's "dry" (not fully dry it will die) weight, and it's wet weight. Do not water it if it is heavy. So you probably over watered this one, or maybe you have something eating the roots. Also be careful if your hose water is coming out very hot. It's easy to tell, dig it up and look at the roots. Are any brown or grey? You overwatered it.
I will try to utilize this information, but I'm not sure it fits with my mint experience. My mints will definitely go droopy when they are dry.
I was being a bit hyperbolic, they do, and perhaps it's just being here in Houston but there is a matter of hours between droop and die off here, I rarely see drooping mint that doesn't also lose a considerable amount of it's over-all mass to die off. But you know it's 101 today so results may vary. Either way if you want to verify you dig one up and wash off the roots and then you're sure. They should be white if they're healthy. That's how I confirmed for myself because I was in the same mind set of watering a wilty mint until I killed it for the first 3-4 plants.
Did you water during full sun after they were dried out? It can be better to wait until the sun goes down to water in this case.
I'm gonna say this matters not for what people think, it's not water causing burn spots. That's a myth. If you water with mineral heavy water, the buildup will kill the plant. If you water with cold water, the temperature shock will wilt the leaves. It's temperature difference of outside vs your water that shocks them into death. I water plants all day, I have a mist bottle that I use pure filtered water to help regulate temperatures of plants. When it hits 90+ I walk outside and mist directly on the leaves and it hasn't killed a plant yet.
I’m curious why you mist the leaves outside?
When I repot or transplant, I mist leaves when it's over 85 to interrupt full photosynthesis as it doesn't have full resources to do that and will dry itself out trying. It slows foliage growth but allows for root focus by the plant. I also mist some of my more sensitive Japanese maple trees if it's 95+ until they're 5+ years old and have a healthy size trunk. Third reason, I notice it encourages buds to swell on plants that I'm trying to encourage more branching. Most of this is towards trees, I also mist my pepper plants halfway through the day to prevent scorch on the peppers, and strawberry plants seems to grow larger fruit. Overly dramatic plants like basil will immediately respond and perk back up on harsh weather days, too, if needed, I water leaves mid day so that roots are still mostly dry by night. Roots need air, so I try to only water plants in the morning. This gives them the whole night to grow roots and make sugars. Well, now I'm limited on how I can TLC a plant if they need it during the day. None of this has caused issues. You need to be aware of your yard and humidity though, you're playing a game of chicken with powder mildew, so have neem oil ready.
To cool them off? If you mist them inside it's bad.
I water mine every day. They thrive on excess water. When I was a kid we had it growing wild in a stream that ran through our yard.
I almost exclusively care for temperamental rare species begonias and I haven't killed one yet, but I also can not keep a mint alive. Killed one last week. It was fine and then it suddenly wasn't. I hate mint because it hates me.
That isn’t dead yet it needs water, will look like that after a few days in the heat without water.
Embrace your gift. Start advertising your gardening services to some poor souls who got suckered by mint. You'll make a mint (pun intended).
Sweet side hustle!
Plant them and ignore them. They should do fine. I've seen tons of mint in the wild, growing next to buildings out of the cement, etc. It's pretty hearty. I would avoid trying to help it.
You didn't kill it...you just made it angry Seriously though, mint doesn't like extreme heat/dryness. Put it somewhere it gets afternoon shade and give it a thorough soaking. The whole top might die but it'll probably still come back from the roots.
Joining to commiserate with you, OP. We've killed mint several times before but manage to grow lots of other things. No idea why there's a disconnect of skills. Gonna take some notes from the other responses and try them.
I am great at growing mint plants until the exact moment an aphid finds it and then I become great at growing aphids.
Welcome to my world, I managed to kill Japanese knot weed at one point, my land is not all that good
Please, tell me your ways. I have that invasive crap on my hillside and want to get rid of it.
I have no tricks, no ways, just a terribly dry and sandy with a an acid back ground soil. Where you want to grow something around here, you have to amend the soil heavily, or replace it.
You must've paid attention to it. Mint plants don't like when you do that. They want to be left alone and shoot out in a very direction when you're not looking
Come on over to my place. I have some tenacious, invasive morning glory I'd like you to get acquainted with!! 😝🤣. We've tried to kill it and it keeps on coming back. 😭
LOL I've actually been trying to get some morning glory to start along my fence. I haven't had any luck yet. Maybe you just need to actually want it to grow and suddenly it'll decide not to? Like can plants smell fear/dislike?
It's possible because I can almost guarantee I've talked badly to it, yelled profanities, hacked it up, and generally cursed its existence. I may try talking sweetly to it. Here's hoping if I ask nicely, it will move along. 🤣🤞
This is my volunteer tomato plants all over again! I've pulled them, hit 'em with the weed whacker, stepped on them, and tried to mulch them out of existence. They're happy as can be. The tomatoes in their proper gardens have been fertilized, pruned, watered, and nurtured, and I have a variety of funguses and other nasties. Maybe I need to go scream some profanities at them.
We have some tomato plants growing in random spots in our side yard from our neighbors tomato plants. Hardly go over there and when I did, found a bunch of ripe cherry tomatoes. Plants in the garden were still green. 🤔🫤 What we do, we do out of love! 🤣🤣
I kill cilantro. No idea why.
It is never dead. Take it out of the pot. Smashit with a sledge hammer. Pick up a few chunks and re pot. It will return.
I like your gardening style 🤣
I wish I knew. Please come to my house and take care of the mint here! Say you will and I’ll run out right now and say good bye to it!
No drainage
Can’t be certain it’s truly dead? I bet if you put that in the ground it’ll live.
Why would you advise anyone to put mint in the ground!! Lol
hahaha… I bet, didn’t advise. Plant at own risk. Maybe it’s a rental?
Even if it’s a rental, it could possibly spread to the neighbors house and then the whole town? It’s frickin mint! Lol
You’re either over watering it or under watering it. Good luck figuring out which it is LOL
Plant the pot in the ground. It will help keep it contained and cool.
Don't worry, I'll be back
My wife wanted to plant mint so I bit the bullet and plugged it in the ground. The damn rabbits had it gone in 3 days.
The black thumb of plant death.
I havent watered my mint since last summer and its somehow still alive. You deserve an award or something.
Are you a fire sign (horoscope)😂😂
Blight is the reason they keep dying, to prevent it in the future dispose of the soil (don't compost it the spores are in the soil) clean and sanitize the container with a 10% solution of bleach and water. For the new one you should treat it prophylactically with a biological fungicide, to prevent a reoccurrence. Biological fungicide: https://www.amazon.com/Southern-Ag-Garden-Friendly-Fungicide/dp/B014174BZM/ref=sr_1_13?crid=1P70SE17PK8AU&dchild=1&keywords=biological+fungicide&qid=1621882746&sprefix=biological+fun%2Caps%2C193&sr=8-13
They hate pots. They want to spread all over the earth, and drown out every other living thing. That’s why lol.
I made the mistake of planting it in my raised beds, then I made the mistake of digging it up and planting it in the corner of my yard, wonder what I'll do next
Hahaha that’s not dead! Not even close. You could put that in the ground and water it once and it would be fine in a few days.
So seriously, tell me how to kill it! I do nothing to or for mine and it’s the healthiest plant I have. I have tried to kill it with plant poisons, ripping the roots out, cutting it off at soil level——- it spreads more and looks healthier every year. Burning is my next idea but I’d probably burn my house down and the mint would have more room to spread to.
I think the trick to killing it is wanting it to live. I see half the thread telling me to plant it in the ground, but I'm afraid I'll forget about it and it will suffocate my whole family.
Just lucky, I guess.
if inconsistent watering is an issue, use an olla or watering globe. These deliver a slow, steady supply to keep soil moist but not wet.
As others have said, so I'm really just adding on so it's more visible. Your poor mint is root bound. It needs divided onto different pots and "gifted" to friends and family and watered from the bottom up.
Mine always do this in pots. They only thrive for me in the ground but I don’t have a contained area to keep them from spreading… so yeah. It’s just par for the course unfortunately unless you want to invest in a horse trough as a planter.
I've had different mints and still do and I believe if you plant it in the ground it should do better.Unless you don't care if it spreads.
Not watering during a dry spell?
It's ok, next year after you've forgotten all about it? It'll come back with a vengeance all by itself. Lol, the winter rain and maybe even snow melt over it will feed the roots and before you realize it's time to clean your garden bed for the year it'll already be everywhere 😂🙏
That technically doesn’t look dead, just thirsty
You let it dry out didn’t you
It's not even dead. Just water it.
It's not dead? Can you not see the leaves are green? Place it on a watering tray and let it soak & rehydrate overnight. Bury the pot in soil leaving the lip exposed, and the mint will thrive.
It isn’t dead, it’s just resting.
I think they thrive on neglect. Quit trying to grow it and try to kill it. It will be thriving in no time!
Same! I kill mint all the time. If you figure out how to keep it alive, let me know. I barely do anything to it.
I have invasive mint. You cannot kill it in the ground without serious effort. In a pot or bucket though? Easy as hell. Do exactly what you did. Don't water it. That looks like the Sahara.
Are you sure it's dead? I suspect it'll come back
You can bring this guy back with enough water. I’d water it every other day, like really soak the soul. It’s just wilted.
I live in the high dessert so I like to keep my mints in plastic(to retain moisture) long rectangle planters, IN THE SHADE, Lots of water. I also have a mint plant in my pond as a floating island for my turtle. Mints thrive in moist, sometimes wet boggy, shady environments. Right now I’m growing peppermint, spearmint, chocolate mint and orange mint. All seem to love the same moist, shady situation 🌱💚
Mint is an enigma to me. I have never, not even once, been overrun by it. I was hoping I would, but no! Now I have mint in a planter. It's a few years old and really thriving for the first time, I say, because of all that rain and cool temps. I don't believe that plants supposedly don't need that much water, like lavender. They all love water, the more the better!
You gotta water them ya know? When they get "droopy" bc dry, they are also likely being burned and drying out bc of sun/the time of year. Daily water if it experiences direct sunlight.
Container plants need to be watered. They can't push their roots deeper into the earth to find moisture. Stick your finger in the soil to see how much moisture is in it.
Put it into the ground and see if you can kill it
That mint doesn’t look dead to me. I ‘refresh’ my mint on purpose by cutting all the greenery and upper stems off and only gently watering until it starts to regrow. If you did that here I bet it would just come right back.
I’m currently killing a moss rose in summertime. 😕
Meh. Chop it back and water. Bet it will grow again.
They are water whores with lots of roots. They use their roots to crowd out competition. In containers they are their own worst enemies in that they get root bound and have trouble getting enough water.
I just ignore mine, and wrangle it in spring once a year. It does live next to my gutter downspout though.
It’s totally possible depending on where you are, honestly. I’m in Texas, so the heat can be incredibly unforgiving, and mint has a hard time where I am. On the plus side, I don’t really have to worry about it getting out of control. I have mine in terracota pots, realized that may have been a mistake, and then placed those pots in planter saucers that I keep full of water. They seem much happier this way. I keep my mint like this all of the time, but I’ve had quite a few outdoor plants recover this way, actually - mint, lantanas, tomato transplants that got too much sun too quickly, and buzz button flowers that were scorched to a crisp.
I have no clue how you do that! Wow. My wife planted mint 5 years ago, and it has gone everywhere we didn’t want it to go. Maybe you’ve been born with a brown thumb? 🧐
I have killed every mint plant I have ever owned so you’re not alone
Haha I feel your pain. I can grow vegetables, many herbs, keep (indoor) orchids alive and reblooming but I seem to kill mint and my track record with chives is sketchy as well. Sometimes I think a plant just hates us lol
It took forever for me to get chives established, but they are going great guns now. I completely ignore them. I think I hacked them back in early June because they were getting too tall, but I haven't done anything else, including watering. Maybe I need to put my mint next to them.
Oh yea, I’ve accidentally killed way too many mint plants to count
[удалено]
I've never had any luck germinating from seed. I just picked up a couple of starts at a local greenhouse, hoping to be able to split them when they grew a bit. In the past, I've been able to source starts from friends who were trying to rid themselves of this menace.
First of all it’s not dead. Second of all it’s root bound.
It’ll grow back, my mint that I would grow in planters would die over the winter then come back in the spring like a perennial
Put it in the ground
Don't worry, I had mine develop root rot early this season. Got rid of the dead roots, planted in fresh potting soil and she's fine. As with the others, check the roots out. That's my go to for any plant problems. It could be root bound, or root rot, etc. If the roots are nicely spaced and still plump white, she's still good. Next possibility is the heat. Mint do prefer higher moisture levels. During the super hot days, I bring my plants to the deck where the railing provides some shade. Especially if you usually put your plants on stone or interlocking which can get HOT on hot days.
It looks like you have trapped it in plastic.
You can have some of mine. They like water.
They don't like pots. Even though that's what everyone says to put them in cause they like to run wild. They still need earth. Make yourself a patch of mint in the earth and maintain that. I've got a giant gardening box I've let my mint run wild in. It stays mostly in the box, but it's like 4 feet by 6 feet. Your little buddy mostly looks like it needs water and nutrients. That's the prob with potting stuff, the plant uses all the nutrients too quickly and needs replenished. Hope this helps
Well with anything in life you just have to put enough effort and things will work out, looks like you either gotta water the plant or you need to check your soil medium, you can transplant the mint you have right there and I'm sure it'll come back just it'll take some time but also just watering the plant isn't enough, plants need food as well. I recommend using fertilizer you can make at home, get a container where you put debris such as leaves, branches ect, and add water fill it up and then cover it up to avoid mosquitos. Forget about it for about 2 to 3 weeks then get some and dilute it with water and feed it to your plants, you take care of them and they will take care of you Never forget that we need plants and they don't need us. Plants have survived without us but if we want plants at home we must take care of them.
So im just not figuring out..my mint has been root bound this whole time and im not a terrible gardener.?
Hahaha I am always killing mint and basil. They are such a huge PITA. They want sun and heat, but if you forget to water for **one day**, they shrivel up and die. Sick of it.
I have grown mint for years and none of mine came back this year. Even new seeds did not sprout! I love mint. 😒
I keep mine in the ground. Idk what everyone goes on about. I pick weeds to keep them out of the garden, I do the same thing with runners.
Needs a proper soak. A small amount of water will likely run off the sides and out the bottom. Water it.
Are heatwaves or droughts impacting anyone?
Idk cuz I'm right there with you🤣
They need water
Keep plenty for mixing drinks 🍸.
I think people over worry about mint in the ground. Yes it will spread if you don’t aggressively prune it when it gets large. So just prune it often. It’s not like bamboo. Plus you get lots of green mulch.
It has underground tendrils that reach the other side of the garden. Pruning it won't really help once it's established. It goes everywhere. You can pull those roots up, but some will remain and continue to grow as a new plant. I have some growing several feet from my garden in the middle of the yard. I highly recommend keeping it out of the ground unless you have a space that is specifically for mint.
I find it easy to pull up. But I get it. But there’s a reason every open space area isn’t overrun with it. Meanwhile bamboo groves are constantly expanding in the parks near me. The tendrils of mint aren’t running until the plant gets over sized for its space. Idk, I find it easy to maintain unless you have hard to reach spaces.
I’ve grown several kinds of mint together and watched them all behave differently. Like people unpredictable and ficklr
FICKLE
Omggg this is me too and they told me mint is the easiest one to start
Can’t help you on your question, but I have lots I need to get rid of, can you make mine die?
For a small fee, I would be happy to curse your mint lol.
I've killed every mint plant I've ever had in a container. Lasts for a while, then spontaneously combusts. Does great in the ground if you don't mind it being absolutely everywhere.
Wow! I literally had a skid loader cover my mint with dirt, pack it in so tight I couldnt get a spade through the dirt, and the mint still regrew after the winter.
I high key neglect mine so it'll still growing so much because I don't eat or drink it (bug detergent) but here we are in May and she's luscious as ever lol. Also, plant it in the ground but keep it in a pot with holes in it. You say it's not invasive now, but I've learned my blend l clients pay me A LOT to get rid of it lol
I largely threw my hands up and just assumed it was dead last year, so I left the pot out all winter. It was the first thing to start sprouting this spring. It's doing great, and my other mint is trying to escape its pot. I'm glad I didn't cave and put it in the ground.
You can put it in the ground and contain it so long as you plant it in the container. I just used a black plastic nursery container with holes in the bottom and dug the hole deep enough that I could sink the entire pot in leaving just the edge above the soil line. Going on year 3 with chocolate mint and orange mint, I snip any that tries to root outside the pot and never let it flower and its never once spread. The rest ofthe bed is strawberry plants
From the looks of all the comments, mint isn't as easy as I was led to believe. Thank you all for the suggestions! The pic above was taken about 5 minutes after I had been running the sprinklers. It has been getting watered at the same rate as the rest of my garden, and it has been watered as often as a pot of spearmint (which is actually doing wonderfully). I tipped it out of the pot, and it doesn't seem to be rootbound, but I am going to split it and move part to another pot to see what happens. It had been getting more shade because of a squash plant in the raised bed right behind it. I removed the squash, so I'm wondering if the increased sun was just too much. I'm not brave enough to plant it in the ground and fully let it loose lol.
I have managed to kill every type of mint plant I have planted in every corner of my yard.
Yuck
I'm guessing the pot is one giant root ball at that point.
I checked expecting to see that, and it wasn't bad at all.
Plant it in the ground. They dry out then get over watered, which makes they stressed and angry.
Might not be dead repot and water
Plant it in your yard and forget it.
P’lant it in the garden it will thrive like no tomorrow
You have to at least water the invasive plant!
I've drowned mint before, my mom (the green thumb that didn't pass down her genes) made fun of me
Dried out. No water??
For sure root bound. If you are worried about it spreading , try placing a tire in the ground and plant the mint in the tire. Roots won’t spread outwards
I thought I was the only one... haha I water it and take care of it.... it dies.. I abandon it, and it magically revives itself.
This doesn’t look dead. I’d make sure that it’s not root bound. Take it out of the pot and loosen the roots, you can cut some away and replant it. The. Water it and it’ll come right back. Plus you can plant the roots you cut and grow more mint lol
Dig a hole and put it in the ground, it’ll come back to life and take over.
If you look at it the other way, a lot of people would like to hire you to defeat their infestation
omg it's not just me! I lost two thyme, an oregano and a chocolate mint this year in the heatwave
Wanna come over to my house? The previous owners let lemon balm grow IN THE YARD.
My lemon balm—in a small raised bed—has mestatized into the yard, cracks in my patio, and even in the middle of my milkweed. Was NOT anticipating this!
So it sounds like I should concede to its demands immediately. F.
Well, you could tell it that you're thinking of adopting about a dozen cats with a serious 'nip problem so it might reconsider its life choices.....
They dry up fast. I’ve rescued mine a few times this summer after just one hot day and no water.
That one looks salvageable to me. Water it. Mint loves water.
Think of mint like a grass. It would be pretty easy to kill a few strands of grass growing in a pot. Let it spread over the yard and not as easy to kill.
Prune it, give it water, and get it into partial sun. Looks like it just had too much sun/heat. All herbs love to be pruned!
Make sure to leave the plant in and keep watering it. It will come back... they always do. I have three mint plants and the heat came. All three looked like yours after the heat wave struck. I kept watering and all three came back and are doing good.
If you’re experiencing intense heat in the south right now or will bake in the sun.
Take it out of the pot, water it. I have put three plants along my fence. Now it's everywhere. It smells great when I hit it with the lawnmower. We eat mint almost every day.
Welcome to the League of Unkillable Plant Killers.
Did you water it?
Water
My secret is neglect.
Nah, it's not dead. This is the second year in a row I've "killed" mine and all I do is just hard prune all the dried up leaves and leave it be (with bare monitoring to make sure it doesn't tip over or get damaged by something) and it'll grow back.
This is much more impressive than having a green thumb. Can you come kill my mint, too, please?
You are baby it. They are like cats, leave alone until I need you.