How to revive an indoor plant that’s stressed or close to death

Indoor plants are a beautiful addition to the home, adding a touch of nature to our decor and becoming a hobby that engages our hearts and minds. So it can be frustrating when they look like they’re struggling and even more disheartening when they appear on the verge of death.

All isn’t lost, because this is the point where you can step in and save your precious plants from a trip to the green waste bin. There are plenty of things you can try to restore their health – you just need to do a little “detective work” first.

Horticulturalist and owner of indoor plant store Wattle & Bee, Felicity Moody, told nine.com.au signs your plant is stressed include leaf dropping – particularly for ficus varieties, discoloured leaves, spots and insects.

She said the sooner it’s addressed the sooner they’ll bounce back, but if you don’t take action at this point your plant may end up beyond help. That doesn’t mean you can’t try to save them at this point – it’s worth a go, but perhaps lower your expectations.

Signs that plants are on the verge of death are, “if you’ve only got a couple of leaves left, or all the leaves are discoloured, there’s browning on every single leaf and there’s no new growth. 

“If you’ve still got new growth coming through, that’s a good sign, a sign that the plant’s still putting energy into growing and trying to recover. But if you’ve got no new growth and everything’s looking a bit discoloured, brown, hardly any leaves, you might have super wet soil or super dry soil – they’re signs that it’s desperate times,” Moody said

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To help a stressed plant consider the two most common plant problems; overwatering and not enough light.

If you think it’s overwatering stop watering for now and let it dry out. Then before you water it next time check the soil first either by sticking your finger in an inch or popping in a moisture metre.

Light needs can be addressed by trying it in a different location.

“It could be as simple as moving it closer to a window. A lot of indoor plants are tropical, they really don’t like being near those cold draughty outside doors, so moving it away from those doors [can help], don’t put them in front of air-conditioning and heaters, you want at least a few metres away from them. Sometimes you’re lucky, and it’s just a really easy move of the plant,” she said.

Another common issue is a lack of nutrients because if you’re not fertilising the only nutrients plants have is in the soil, and this doesn’t last as it gets used up by the plant. So simply giving it some fertiliser – liquid works faster than granules – can help perk your plant up.

But you might not have to do much at all to make your plant happy again.

When plants look unhappy many people assume repotting will help, but Moody warned that should only be done if absolutely necessary. This is because repotting causes transplant shock, which will stress the plant out.

The occasions when repotting is necessary are if the roots are coming out of the top or bottom of the plant, which means the plant needs more room, or it has root rot, which is fungal contamination caused by overwatering.

“If you do notice your plant’s perking up after you repot, then I’d encourage you to keep on top of the fertilising regularly, and you should see those results without having to repot,” she said.

Cutting the plant back can also be useful as removing brown leaves helps the plant send its energy to new growth rather than trying to repair the discoloured or diseased parts. This includes removing crispy leaves as unfortunately, they won’t return to being green.

“I would cut it back as far back as you can. If it’s a whole branch that’s turned brown, then you want to cut that back as well. Um, but you don’t want to cut every leaf off because photosynthesis is how plants make their food, so you want to make sure there’s plenty of green still there for them to do that.”

Once you’ve tried those things to revive your plant don’t expect to see it perk up straight away, as it can take weeks or months to see a change.

However, if your plant’s been particularly struggling it’ll take time for the roots to regenerate and grow.

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“That’ll be the first process, especially if you’ve had to repot. But even if your plant has been dealing with insect damage or any other stressors, those roots often stop growing while it focuses on what’s going on above the surface.

“Once you’ve fixed that, the roots will start growing, and it takes at least a month for new roots to start kicking in, so you’re not going to notice those changes for [possibly] up to six months,” Moody said.

“Gardening’s all about patience and just keeping an eye on things. After about a month, those roots will start growing again and picking up a pace, and then you should start noticing improvements from that point.”

Unfortunately, some issues can take even longer, with Moody warning she’s seen ficus plants take a year to go back to their leafy best.

“That’s another reason why it’s best to try and fix it sooner rather than later. That’s not to say that the plant continues to get worse during that year, it just means you’re not going to see nice, big, bushy growth for a little bit of time.”