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theloud

Thyme mysteriously dying

theloud
12 years ago

My creeping thyme did great for a couple years, then developed a huge dead patch seemingly overnight. The odd thing is that the dead patch has a geometrically sharp border, which doesn't follow the growth pattern of the plant at all. I wondered if some chemical had somehow been spilled over it. Now the dead patch is spreading, and has almost completely killed the plant. I transplanted a bit from the edge to a different part of the garden and hope it survives. What's going on, and what can I do about it?

Comments (3)

  • Daisyduckworth
    12 years ago

    Thyme is a short-lived perennial, best replaced after about 3-5 years.

    Best solution is to propagate from this mother plant. You can do that by taking some cuttings from the healthy outer reaches, or by encouraging those outer bits to self-layer. Simply pin down a stem or two (or three)with a bit of wire bent into a U, ensuring that the undersurface of the stem is constantly touching the surface of the soil (or even covered by it). With luck, roots should form on the underside of the stem - and when that happens, you can separate the mother and the child and replant the child. It might hasten root-formation if you gently sandpaper the underside of the stem a layer or two.

    Sometimes you can have success propagating thyme by burying the entire plant with soil, just leaving some of the outer reaches exposed. This is a form of layering, in which (hopefully) some of the buried stems will form roots.

  • theloud
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    I'd never heard that thyme is a short-lived perennial. (Not even from that expert, Floyd.) Can anyone confirm this? Anyway, other varieties of thyme that I planted earlier or at the same time are doing fine.

    This one thyme plant had been doing so well, I'd hoped to make a lawn of it, but I won't if it's prone to this mysterious problem. Now it's almost entirely dead, although it seems to be resprouting from the roots.

  • tracydr
    12 years ago

    My thyme dies almost every summer. It just doesn't seem to be able to take the heat in AZ. It makes it about 3/4 of the way through the summer, I think I've got it made and then it dies.