I love zinnias and their beautiful blossoms. I recommended this plant to my aunt. She bought it from a local nursery and repotted it. But within 2 weeks the leaves started to shrivel and dry and some of the leaves turned brown. The impact was so aggressive that even the flower was affected by this problem. You can see in the picture, those flowers are not old. In this article, I will share how to fix brown drying leaves of Zinnia.
Tip: Do not buy the plants directly from the nurseries. They don’t like to be transplanted. They are easy seed starters. Next time start them with seeds and there will be less chance of drying brown leaves and flower petals.
What to do to protect zinnia leaves from drying up and getting brown
- Check the weather forecast regularly. I recommend this to every gardener. Whenever there is a chance of rain, cover up your zinnia. They don't like water on their leaves. They get rust. So when there is a lot of rain, they look sick. While watering your Zinnia make sure that you are not pouring water on the leaves.
- Stop using chemical fertilizer on this plant. They love organic compost and perform very well. I myself witnessed issues with chemical fertilizer, especially for this plant. I had several flowering plants. I applied the same chemical fertilizer to three different plants and Zinnia could not tolerate the fertilizer.
- Do not water Zinnia too frequently. You can use your finger to check the soil moisture if you don't have a soil moisture testing device. If you feel that the soil has very little moisture then water it otherwise not.
There might be a lot of other reasons for brown and dry leaves on Zinnia. But I am not going to write all of those. I love sharing what I face and how I fix that. If you follow the above guidelines, I am sure you can get rid of this issue.
Once you start caring for your zinnia properly you can get blossoms like this:
