Mint leaves & stems going black

[ccarpeaux]

Hi, all,

Have only been gardening a year or two. I live in Northern VA (USDA Zone 7a, if that helps) and recently bought a "Kentucky Colonel" spearmint plant at my local garden center and transplanted to a pot. I had used up all my pots with holes and new mint didn't mind wet soil as much as other plants, so i filled the bottom of the pot with rocks for drainage then added soil and planted the mint. I keep them on our back deck, which, I believe gets a strong Northwest exposure. A few times when the rain was heaviest, i'd tip the pots that didn't have drainage holes to empty excess water. The past week or two the sun's been stronger, so I moved the mint to a place where it still gets sun, but gets shade earlier. A slight green moss has grown over the top of the soil and today when i got home i noticed several of the bottom leaves and a couple of the stems turning brown/black. Any ideas what I can do to remedy? I'm probably giving way too much information for this little problem but I don't know much about gardening so want to give as much info as possible.

Thanks!

[imafan26]

sounds like your pot needs those holes. Mint can handle quite a bit of water but it sounds like it may have root rot. If you haven't got pots with holes and the mint is small, use milk cartons, gallon bottles, or even coffee cans and put some holes in them for drainage until you can get a proper pot.