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Can you please look at my petunias - I think they're sick!

17 years ago

Hi everyone. I wonder if you could please take a look at my petunias that I have in a container. There are three plants in this container, planted in Miracle Grow soil. I fertilize, water, everything, and I'm confused as to how to help them not look so sickly! I deadhead and everything.

I should add that I also used this same type of petunia (which I thought were waves, but I'm not so sure) in two other moss hanging windowboxes, and while they aren't this sickly, they aren't performing nearly as well as they should. I went to a different nursery this year for my annuals, and I'm not happy at all with my petunias, which are normally no-brainers!

Thank you for looking!

Beth

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Comments (7)

mje769
17 years ago
Hi,
Do you water in the heat of the day? When I water my potted flowers I water the soil only. Good luck!
Marsha
albertar
17 years ago
Those that are drooping and dying back, pinch right off the stem.
Alberta
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mylab123
17 years ago
It looks like mine when I let the water sprinklers hit them - I water the soil only and be sure to deadhead.
calliope
17 years ago
It's simply a matter of the blooms on many varieties are not weather tolerant and red is about the worst offender. You can get some series of petunia where the blooms don't snot out so easily, and I recommend the "dream" series for red and blues. Breeders have been working on this for years and those lines with good weather tolerance are advertised as such. Good luck. Just deadhead but they'll continue to do this as the bloom ages if rain or water hits them.
mmqchdygg
17 years ago
I had wonderful luck with the "Madness" series last year. They bounced back great from rainstorms, just as the plant tag said they would.
I'll likely try them again next year and use up some seed I collected last season.

"Supertunia" series were just 'ok' with weather.
"Surfinias" and "Cascade" did GREAT this year in the rain.
boxcar_grower
17 years ago
I grew a bunch of wave petunias from seed. One was a "flag mix" of red white and blue. The red is pathetic. Just like your picture. The spent blooms look terrible. The next pathetic is the white and the blue (really a purple) are the best. You dont even notice the spent blooms.

As far as the water effecting them, it is possible. All of the spent blooms look like that on the red. I am very careful not to "top water" the foliage and only water the soil with a long wand.
tinamcg
17 years ago
You can tell from the photo that the damage mirrors a spray pattern. Petunia blooms have such thin and delicate petals; they suffer water spot damage very easily. Water droplets on the leaves can intensify the rays of the sun, kind of like a magnifier.

Tina McG

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