Wrinkled or shrivelled leaves
A leaf that has lost its water. Usually thirst, sometimes the opposite, and on a succulent it is the plant's own gauge working exactly as it should.
What it usually is
1 Genuinely dry
| How to tell | Compost dry all the way through, light in the hand, possibly shrunk from the sides of the pot. On a succulent the leaves go soft and creased from the lowest ones up. On a leafy plant they go limp before they crease. |
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| The fix | Water thoroughly until it runs from the bottom, then empty the saucer. If the compost has pulled away from the pot, stand it in a bowl of water for twenty minutes first so it swells back and stops the water running down the gap. |
2 Roots lost to rot, so the plant cannot drink
| How to tell | The same wrinkling but with wet compost. This is the confusing one: a plant with rotten roots looks exactly like a thirsty plant, because in both cases water is not reaching the leaf. |
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| The fix | Tip it out and look at the roots. If they are brown, soft or smell sour, treat it as root rot: cut back to firm tissue, repot into fresh gritty compost, and water sparingly while it rebuilds. |
3 A succulent using its reserves
| How to tell | Slight creasing on the lowest leaves of an aloe, echeveria or jade a few weeks after the last watering, with the plant otherwise firm and coloured. |
|---|---|
| The fix | Nothing, or a normal soak. This is the plant's own gauge. A succulent whose lower leaves have gone slightly soft is a succulent that is ready for water, and one that is plump right to the bottom does not need any. |
Through the year. Wrinkling in summer is usually thirst and wrinkling in winter is more often roots, because the plant is drinking a fraction of what it did and the same watering is drowning it.
A wrinkled leaf has lost water, and there are only two reasons water is not reaching it: there is none in the pot, or there are no roots to move it. Everything else about this symptom follows from telling those two apart, and the only reliable way to do that is to put a finger in the compost.
Dry compost and a wrinkled leaf is the easy case. Water it properly, which means until water runs from the drainage hole, and then empty the saucer twenty minutes later. Do not give a small splash; that wets the top and leaves the root ball dry underneath. If the compost has shrunk away from the sides of the pot, water will simply run down the gap and out, so stand the whole pot in a bowl for twenty minutes and let it take water up from below.
Wet compost and a wrinkled leaf is the case people get wrong, and it is the reason a great many plants are killed by kindness. Roots that have rotted cannot move water, so the plant droops and creases exactly as a thirsty one does. The instinct is to water it. That finishes it. Tip it out and look at the roots instead: firm and pale is one story, brown and sliding out of its skin is another.
Succulents deserve their own paragraph, because for them a little wrinkling is information rather than a fault. A plant that stores water in its leaves spends it between rains, and the lowest leaves going slightly soft is the plant saying it has drawn on its reserves. That is the moment to water, and watering before it is what causes the rot that kills more succulents than drought ever does. A jade or an aloe that is plump to the bottom needs nothing.
One further cause worth knowing about: a plant that has just been repotted, or one that has lost roots to cold, may wrinkle for a week or two while it rebuilds. Keep it out of direct sun, water sparingly, and let it recover rather than trying to feed it back to health.
Entries that name it
What the journal says about this symptom on each plant.
| Aloe vera | The plant has run down its water reserve. Soak the compost thoroughly until water runs from the base, then return to the normal rhythm. The leaves plump up over a few days. |
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| Bunny ears cactus | Pads gone soft and puckered in summer, which means it is genuinely thirsty. Soak it properly and let it drain. In the growing season it wants more water than most people give a cactus. |
| Burro's tail | Genuinely dry, which takes a long time on this plant. Soak it thoroughly and let it drain. The leaves plump up over a couple of days. |
| Christmas cactus | Segments shrivelling from a long dry spell, or from roots lost to rot. Feel the compost. Dry means soak it; damp means unpot and check for soft brown roots. |
| Cucumber | Dry compost, or roots damaged by cold water or cold nights. Water evenly with water at room temperature and keep the plant above twelve degrees at night. |
| Echeveria | A long spell without water. Soak the compost thoroughly and the leaves fill out over about a week. |
| Jade plant | The plant has used its reserve and needs a proper soak. Water thoroughly until it runs from the base, then go back to the usual rhythm. The leaves fill out over about a week. |
| Moth orchid | The roots cannot take up water, usually because they have rotted in wet bark. Tip the plant out, cut away every soft brown root, repot into fresh dry bark and water sparingly until firm green roots appear. |
| Snake plant | Prolonged thirst. Soak thoroughly and allow to drain; leaves plump up within days. |
| String of pearls | The beads have used their reserve and the plant needs a soak. Water thoroughly until it runs from the base, then return to the usual rhythm. The beads plump again over a few days. |
| Sweetheart hoya | Either genuinely dry or rotted at the root, which look identical. Feel the compost. Dry and light means water it. Wet and heavy means take it out and look at the roots. |
| Tree aeonium | Summer dormancy, which looks like distress and is not. In high summer the rosettes close up and the lower leaves shrivel and drop. That is the plant resting. Water sparingly and wait for autumn. |
| Watermelon peperomia | Genuinely dry for once, which on this plant is unusual. Soak it thoroughly and let it drain. The leaves plump up within a day. |
| Wax plant | A long dry spell, or roots lost to rot. Feel the compost. Dry means soak it; damp means unpot and check for soft brown roots. |
Questions from the margin
- Why are my plant's leaves wrinkled?
- Water is not reaching them, and there are only two reasons for that: there is none in the pot, or the roots have rotted and cannot move it. A finger in the compost tells you which, and the two need opposite responses.
- Should I water a wrinkled succulent?
- If the compost is dry all the way through, yes, thoroughly. Slight creasing on the lowest leaves is the plant's own gauge telling you it has drawn on its reserves. A succulent that is plump to the bottom needs nothing.
Checked against RHS, Watering houseplants; Cactus and Succulent Society, Watering practice.