There is nothing worse when you love plants than facing their loss. No matter how hard you try, you may or may not be lucky. One of the plants that can give you a lot of trouble is the bougainvillea. It is common that, if you do not take precautions, you will find your bougainvillea dry.
But can it be recovered? The truth is that yes, if the plant is still alive. For this reason, we are going to give you some of the reasons why your bougainvillea dries up and how to recover it to have it back in all its splendor.
How do I know if my dried bougainvillea is alive?
First of all, you need to know if your bougainvillea is "alive". Otherwise, no matter how much you find the key to why it has dried up, if it has no way of recovering, because it is dead, it will be of no use to you.
One of the most effective methods to tell if a plant is alive or not is to cut off a branch. If the cut you create is green, then you're lucky because it's still alive.
Now, it may happen that the cut does not come out green, but brown. Do you already give her up for dead? The truth is that no, there is still something else you can do.
Scrape the trunk of the bougainvillea a little, as far below the ground as you can, to see if removing a bit of the bark makes it look green. If so, then hopefully you'll be able to get it back.
If it's brown, if it's light, you still have a chance to save it, but if it's dark brown, it's not easy for you to save it.
The reasons why a bougainvillea dries up and how to recover it
Now that you have a better idea of whether your bougainvillea has a chance to recover, the next thing you need to do is figure out why your bougainvillea is dry. The most common are the following:
you change places
Bougainvillea, like other plants, They do not tolerate anything well that you are constantly changing places. For example, imagine that you just bought it and you put it somewhere. But after a couple of days you see that the leaves are falling and you think that the place is not the right one. So you change it.
And all those changes, that we do to try to locate it well, they stress the plant because it never knows where the sun rises from, nor do you leave him time to adapt to his new place.
In this case, the best thing to do is place it in a very sunny place and leave it alone. Keep giving him the care he needs and hopefully he'll pull through.
you have overdone the irrigation
Another reason why your bougainvillea dries up may be due to irrigation. And not precisely because they lack irrigation, but because it may happen that you have gone too far with it.
If the bougainvillea is dry, or you notice that it is beginning to dry out, we recommend that you check the soil it has. If you see it very wet, and not precisely because you just watered it, it may be that you have overwatered it, and that is harming the roots.
It is best to remove it from the pot and check that the roots are not too bad. If so, what you can do is try remove roots that look soft, black, or weak, to give more strength to those who remain.
However, we do not recommend that you put it back in the same pot, and even less with the same soil.
It is preferable to use a mixture between soil and drainage, so that this does not happen to you again. And also if it can be, try to control the risks so that it does not happen again. For example, for a few days after the transplant it is best not to water it and put it in semi-shade. Know that it could get worse, because an emergency transplant will stress her even more, but with a bit of luck, she may succeed.
The sun does not shine
Lighting is one of the bougainvillea's strengths. And when it is not given the necessary light, it can be a big problem for it.
Not only is it to blame for the plant not flowering, but it can also end up drying up (The same as if it gets too much sun).
Generally a bougainvillea it needs about 5 hours a day to flower, and for it to give the greatest amount of flowers it needs at least 8 hours. In fact, the more sun it gets, the more flowers it will have.
If it doesn't get sun, the plant wilts and ends up drying up, but the same will happen if it gets too much sun, or if it's too intense and strong. Especially if it has been a while without being in the sun. In the end it will end up drying out if you don't control the risks, or burning if you spend too much time putting it in direct sunlight.
Your dry bougainvillea is being attacked by a pest or disease
Do not be surprised that if your bougainvillea is dry and you have given it all the care it needs, it is because it has a pest.
To make sure of this, it is best that check the leaves, branches, stem, and even the soil well in search of any undesirable bug. If you detect it, you will have to apply a treatment to save it, but before doing so we recommend that you remove all the dry part (nothing will come out of it) and thus prevent the plant from sending nutrients to those parts that really no longer they will come back
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Did you know that a plant can burn if you put too much fertilizer on it? In the case of bougainvillea, these They do very well in low nutrient soils, and don't like it too much when you fertilize it. So fertilize as little as possible, and if possible with fertilizers that are low in nitrogen.
We cannot assure you that once you detect the problem and remedy it, you will get your plant to reappear, but at least you will provide the means so that your dry bougainvillea can succeed. It will depend on whether you have caught it in time, and what happens to it, to save it or not. But we already tell you that this plant is usually quite strong and could recover. Have you ever had this problem?