A chemical called chlorophyll helps the process of photosynthesis occur. Chlorophyll is also what gives plants their green color. As summer ends and autumn begins, the days get shorter and shorter. If a tree doesn’t receive enough water, the leaves will die faster and fall to the ground.

Plants are busy growing all summer long and into autumn. The bright reds and purples we see in leaves are made mostly in the fall. In some trees, like maples, glucose is trapped in the leaves after photosynthesis stops. Sunlight and the cool nights of autumn cause the leaves turn this glucose into a red color.

Because there’s less sunlight in autumn, the chlorophyll breaks down and is partly transported to the tree’s roots. This allows room for the yellow (xanthophyll) and orange (carotene) pigments in the leaf, as a result of which – tadaaa! – the leaves change colour.

Chlorophyll Breaks Down But in the fall, because of changes in the length of daylight and changes in temperature, the leaves stop their food-making process. The chlorophyll breaks down, the green color disappears, and the yellow to orange colors become visible and give the leaves part of their fall splendor.

Leaves fall—or are pushed—off trees so that the tree can survive the winter and grow new leaves in the spring.

Autumn

Soil treatments, spraying applications of micronutrients to foliage, and trunk injections merely treat the symptoms and not the basic causes of chlorosis. Soil fertilization treatments produce the best results, but are usually the slowest to respond. Soil treatment is best done in early spring through mid-May.

If your plants have yellowing leaves and old leaves, as well as new leaves that are falling at the same accelerated rate, you are overwatering.

A Yellow Leaf Does Not Mean Your Plant Is Dead (and Other Health Tips) The Sill’s mission is to empower all people to be plant people. Check out all the gardening tips, hacks, and inspo you need. More often than not, plant symptoms like leaf drop and yellowing do *not* signal a dead plant.

Wilted, overwatered plants are not always a lost cause.

1. Move your plant to a shady area even if it is a full-sun plant.
2. Check your pot for proper drainage and, if possible, create additional air space around the roots.
3. Water only when the soil is dry to the touch, but do not let it get too dry.
4. Treat with a fungicide.

Signs of under watering include leaf tips browning, leaves dropping, and wilting of plant and leaves. With most plants it is better to slightly under water than to overwater. When plants are under watered, they can usually recover within a few hours after receiving water.

Soil not drying out is usually a sign that drainage or evaporation is insufficient, or water use by your plant is reduced. Increase light, ventilation, and temperature to increase evaporation and water use by your plants. Make sure the soil drains thoroughly and the container has drainage holes.

You can check the soil moisture by squeezing a handful of soil. If the soil holds together and doesn’t break apart if you drop it, it is too wet. If the soil doesn’t hold together at all, it is too dry. If the soil holds together but breaks apart into many smaller clumps, it is just right.

What are some ways of drying wet soil? Increase the light that your plant is growing in. Of course, make sure that the light is appropriate for whatever plant you are growing in the first. Placing a plant in an area with more light will help speed up the time it will use water.

Depending on the time of year, a loamy soil with a little more sand in it will dry out a few days to a week sooner than one with a little more clay. This can make a dramatic difference for farmers in a year like 2017 when it has hardly stopped raining for more than a week.

The space between sand particles is large for water to flow through it. Hence sandy soil drains faster than other types of soil.

A permanent solution to stabilizing a muddy road is to install permeable pavement. For example, the plastic permeable pavers made by TRUEGRID are able to hold gravel securely in place while providing a dry and level surface to drive on.

If you are prepared to re-pot your plants, then you can re-use some of the potting mix. However, add some other fresh ‘ingredients’ to build up the health and restore aeration. Ideally, remove any contaminated potting soil and put it through a hot composting system. This should remove any pathogens.

Putting Life Back Into Soil At the end of the growing season many growers consider their soil used up and throw it away. The key to upcycling potting soil is to leverage the ability of microbes to digest organic matter into humus and to account for deficiencies and ensure complete fertility.

How to Reuse Potting Soil. It’s generally fine to reuse potting soil if whatever you were growing in it was healthy. But even if your plants seemed problem-free, or if you did notice pests or diseases popping up, it’s best to sterilize the mix before reusing in it to avoid infecting next year’s plants.