Fuchsia leaves turning dark

Dirty Harry

Have 4 trailing fuchsias in a hanging basket. First two images are from this week and the third is when they were planted.

 




I suspect this could be overly wet compost given the volume of compost vs. the 4 plants. I've since added a fifth plant (upright variety) which I was hoping could alleviate this but could it be too late if it's root rot? Growth is slow.

Borderline

Cut those damaged and curling leaves away and make sure your cutting tools are cleaned thoroughly afterwards. If the new leaves grow back the same way, then it's best to remove the whole plant as it's likely to be infected with fungal growth, which could spread to the neighbouring clumps.

You mentioned over watering. Whilst these plants are in hanging baskets, they still require good drainage. Try to water into the soil and avoid splashing onto the leaves. Check the roots for rotting, also another possibility.

Dirty Harry

I'll give that a go.

I put a hole in the very bottom of the lining and covered the base in stones to help drainage.

I think I saturated the compost too much initially when mixing in water retaining crystals.

Dirty Harry

Think the compost may have been a contributing factor.

It dried hard and lumpy so there were big clumps stuck together even deep in the basket. I've broken up what I can and made it finer.

Dirty Harry

Cut my losses and started again. New leaves on the plants were looking dark too so for the sake of £1.59 a plant I wasn't wanting to wait much longer and see if it got any better.



This time there are no water retaining granules in the compost so I didn't have to pre-soak it like before- causing the issue in the first place.

Made sure to get rid of any clumps in it all too so that it's all nice and fine, watered in carefully.

Blue Onion

Looks lovely, thanks for the update.  

Dirty Harry

Right this appears to be happening again. Is this a common thing for hanging baskets/bedding in pots or am I doing something daft here?

I watered each plant in carefully, didn't wet the whole basket and have a good layer of stones in the bottom to aid drainage.





Now obviously it's quite a lot of compost relative to the root balls of each plant since they're so young but what the hell am I supposed to do?

Borderline

Firstly, it's a challenge to grow young Fuchsias in a hanging basket. I doubt you are over-watering. You need to water it right down until water drips out of the basket. Are you watering them when the sun is out? If so, you need to start watering in the late evening time or early morning to avoid scorching the leaves.

I also think you need to be less critical of the leaves and let them grow a bit more. If the leaves are quite damaged or crinkled, then pinch the tips off. I thought your old plants looked salvageable. Be patient and let them grow on a bit and see.

Dirty Harry

I haven't watered them since after planting on Friday. Using the moisture meter I have it still shows as very wet when I probe into the edge of the roots.

I'll be patient with this set of plants but it's more that I can see them all changing again compared to the initial photo I took.

I was going to leave the basket in the sun over the next few days to try and help it dry out a touch.

Obelixx

Fuchsias like shade so if they're in the sun they need to be moved.   I grow mine on the north side of the house - lots of light but no direct sun except very early and late around the summer solstice.

Dirty Harry

No they're in the shade for most of the day, I was meaning moving it so that what appears to be excess water can dry out a touch.