Pansies wilting in pots

golfwallah

About a half dozen pansies I planted in different pots over the last 2 months have wilted, keeled over and come away from their roots.

They were all well watered but not overly so and I could find no sign of vine weevil larvae after digging in the soil around where the roots had been.

All these pansies came in a seemingly healthy condition in multipack trays bought in garden centres.

Not all the pansies I planted have failed - only about 6 or so and the violas bought in the same locations are still thriving and are the other pansies (but the latter seem to be getting picked off one by one).

Any ideas of what could be causing the pansy wilt problem?

looksee

Pansies are pretty sturdy, the only things I know of that would destroy the roots like that are over watering/being waterlogged, and vine weavil.

lazybones32

Pansies and violas aren't meant to be planted in the same spot for more than 3 years - not in the same soil/compost anyway. There must be some accumulation of a bacteria in the medium.
Change the compost (if it needs to be) and it should be fine. There were chemicals available that would kill off whatever caused pansy wilt but they're no longer available.

I assume they aren't planted too close together?

golfwallah

Thanks for the feedback.

No, the pansies aren't planted too close together (only 3 plants in a fairly wide pot - now 2 left) and the soil consists of peat mixed with well decomposed organic vegetable matter from the compost bin. All 3 plants had decent and healthy root balls when planted about 6 - 7 weeks ago.

Similar wilting pansies appeared in other pots.

Have to say that I haven't emptied out the entire pot as there are also bulbs planted in the same pot. Did scrape around the surface again today, though and found no trace of vine weevil grubs (although I did find such grubs in other pots that I emptied of summer plants recently). A small number of Cyclamen bulbs I have in hanging baskets also suffered attack from vine weevil grubs.

Did read on websites that pansies bought from garden centres are prone to fungal disease - more so than their smaller flowering cousins, violas. Don't know if this is what happened here.

This is only my third season planting in pots. I'm getting more adventurous with successive years only only became aware of the vine weevil problem a couple of months ago. The plot thickens!!

fox0512

At this time of year I always add some perlite to compost....pansies IMO can handle wet soil for periods but if its not draning fast enough it will become stagnant and thats a killer!!