Check these first
- Does the browning start at the leaf edge, from a spot, or from the lowest leaves?
- Are there black specks, powder, or mould on the dead tissue?
- Did you fertilize, spray, or have a heatwave just before it started?
Most likely causes
From the pests and diseases recorded for this plant, the ones whose symptoms match, most serious first. Symptoms alone rarely confirm a cause, so use the linked page to check the signs and treatment.
Powdery Mildew
White patches appear scattered on the upper leaf surface at first, then the whole leaf is coated in a white powder. Leaves later yellow, brown and die back, and reduced photosynthesis cuts growth and yield.
General description; not specific to this plant.
How to identify and treat: Powdery MildewSclerotinia Rot
The crown, stem or head rots in a water-soaked way and is covered in white cottony mycelium. Black sclerotia later form inside and on the surface, and the plant wilts and dies.
General description; not specific to this plant.
How to identify and treat: Sclerotinia RotFusarium Wilt
Lower leaves wilt during the day and recover morning and evening, and this cycle repeats as the plant dies back. Cutting the stem reveals characteristic browning of the vascular tissue.
General description; not specific to this plant.
How to identify and treat: Fusarium WiltOther possible causes
- Verticillium Wilt — Only one side of the lower leaves yellows and wilts, and the symptom moves up the plant. S…
- Brown Leaf Spot — Small light brown to gray-brown spots form on the leaves and enlarge into irregular lesion…
Other symptoms on this plant
What other growers did about it
A page like this one can tell you what sweet pea leaves turning brown and dying is and what to try. What it cannot tell you is what actually happened to someone who had it on the same plant, at the same point in the season, and what they did next.
Gadenin is a free garden journal built around that. You photograph the plant, tag what you are seeing, and the entries line up by date for each plant you grow.
- Tag the problem and the app tells you how many other growers have logged the same thing on the same plant.
- Growers who make their records public can be followed, so you can read what they did and how it turned out.
- Next season your own entries come back at the same point in the year, so you check the plant before it starts.
Free on iPhone. Recording, tagging and reading public records cost nothing.