Plant wilting although the soil is moist

What causes it, and how to tell them apart

Work down the list making the observation under each heading. GrowingHQ will not guess which one you have — the observation is the answer.

1. Clubrootcommon

   ·source

   Sourced guidancehigh confidence

   • Royal Horticultural Society: Clubroot

   Checked 2026-08-13

   How to tell

   Only affects brassicas — including radish, swede and wallflowers, which growers often forget are brassicas. Lift one plant: clubroot produces swollen, distorted, club-shaped root galls that are unmistakable once seen.

   ·source

   Sourced guidancehigh confidence

   • Royal Horticultural Society: Clubroot — symptoms

   Checked 2026-08-13

   If it is this, do first

   Lift a wilting plant and look at the roots before doing anything else. If the galls are there, the response is a long-term change to how brassicas are grown on that ground rather than anything done this week.

   ·source

   Sourced guidancehigh confidence

   • Royal Horticultural Society: Clubroot — growing on infested soil

   Checked 2026-08-13

2. Allium white rotoccasional

   ·source

   Horticultural consensusmoderate confidence

   • Royal Horticultural Society: Onion white rot

   Checked 2026-08-13

   How to tell

   Alliums only. The leaves yellow and collapse, and the plant lifts easily because the root plate has rotted; the base carries a white fluffy growth with tiny black resting bodies in it.

   ·source

   Sourced guidancehigh confidence

   • Royal Horticultural Society: Onion white rot — symptoms

   Checked 2026-08-13

   If it is this, do first

   Remove the affected plants with the soil around them, and do not compost them. Plan to grow alliums in containers on that plot in future.

   ·source

   Sourced guidancehigh confidence

   • Royal Horticultural Society: Onion white rot

   Checked 2026-08-13

3. Slugs and snailsuncommon

   ·source

   Horticultural consensusmoderate confidence

   • Royal Horticultural Society: Slugs and snails

   Checked 2026-08-13

   How to tell

   Stem damage at soil level, with the plant wilting because it has been partly severed rather than because the roots have failed. Look at the point where the stem meets the soil.

   ·source

   Sourced guidancehigh confidence

   • Royal Horticultural Society: Slugs and snails — damage

   Checked 2026-08-13

   If it is this, do first

   Check the stem base. Physical damage there is a different problem from anything affecting the roots.

   ·source

   Horticultural consensusmoderate confidence

   • Royal Horticultural Society: Diagnosing plant problems

   Checked 2026-08-13

Where GrowingHQ holds more for one plant

This page lists the causes across every plant. The plants below are the ones where something about that plant changes the answer — different candidates, or a different observation that separates them.

Commonly reported on

• Cabbage
• Broccoli
• Kale
• Onion
• Tomato