Good Morning everyone:
Planted 3 3-gallon gardenias at the beginning of March. Eastern exposure. Slightly raised bed of composted top soil. Can't remember if I added facid loving fertilizer. Anyway, all the old leaves are turning yellow and falling off. Looks like I have more yellow than green leaves - yikes! There is new growth on top. Doing a little research online, a poster mentioned that she added regular yellow corn meal around her gardenias and the yellowing stopped. Anyone heard of this? I also read that epsom salts does the trick also.
Thoughts???
Liz
please excuse my corn meal misspelling....
This message was edited May 23, 2006 10:00 AM
Cornmmeal and gardenias
Gliz, don't know about the cornmeal. I've found that gardenias need a LOT of iron. I usually give ironite once a month and haven't had yellowing at all.
Sharon
Gliz dont worry, They have a tendancy to "Yellow" out when transplanted the first year! Once they take hold they will be fine. You said you already saw new growth , thats great! As for the Cornmeal , never heard that one either!
I planted some last week and the edges of some of the leaves on mine are turning a golden brown, but aren't dry.....anyone hear of that?
Yellowing could mean itty-bitty bugs, too. Seriously, they are difficult to see and on the underside of the leaves. Since your plants are new, it's probably not infested yet. If it is iron deficiency--called Iron Chlorosis--usually the veins in the yellow leaves remain green. The iron supplement is cheap and will do the trick. I just found this out and my own gardenia may be too far gone to make it! Mea culpa.
I have read that yellowing of older leaves is a natural process of the gardenia and there is really nothing to stop it. I worried about mine until I found this out. Now I just pinch them off and toss 'em.
Jenks -- I have new plants with crispy brown edges, too. I think it's just the new growth saying it can't take the heat. We water when we can, but the drying winds are hard to match. Elaine -- thanks for the info. We cut ours back, hard, this year because they'd lost all their bottom leaves. I guess they lost more leaves than an occasional one. Two of them came back nicely, but the third hasn't fared so well. So weird, one of my neighbors with monster gardenias gets less light than ours, and hers never lose leaves. Maybe a water issue? Shoot. DH is hoping that third one of ours will fare better now that we've given it iron. Kicker is, the two that made it back snuck in a half dozen blossoms for me, though we thought we'd gotten all the blossom heads. I was touched.
I use milogranite which has a good amount of iron. Use a lot once a month till it looks good again. Last year I had to hit mine with about 2lbs every month for three months. Give it a try.
where did you purchase milogranite -- is it available at HD or Lowes or is this a specialty nursery item? thanks.
When mine start yellowing, I add COFFEE GROUNDS on top of the soil and water them in - they are cured almost overnight!
wow, I love that idea!
They're losing their buds! DANGIT! I dripped the hose on them overnight and they perked up well. I just got them for Mother's Day and don't want to lose them. They're topiaries with braided trunks and so cute! It's just so dry my daily little bit of watering was not seeping down.
Coffe grounds, Hmmmm. What would that do? Coffee acidic? I'll give a try next time I have problems.
DH has designated a container to hold coffee grounds (bless him). He even spread some around a particularly droopy, yellowing gardenia this morning before I got up. He's a keeper!
from what i observe here on saint simons it seems that gardenias get alot of yellow leaves before they bud out, this has happened to my gardenia bush/tree twice now, my neighbor gives hers epsom salts. i used ironite but still got alot of yellowing, maybe i didn't use it often enough but there is a nice crop of gardenias popping out now. dooley saint simons island georgia
It just occurred to me that coffee grounds (and filters) are recommended ingredients in a compost pile- so of course it would be a helpful to spread around our gardenias, etc. Interesting how decomposing food adds to the life and vitality of the soil. Tea leaves/bags are also good additions to the compost pile - I guess it is the acidity in the tea that is good? Starting a compost pile is my next project.
Gliz, I never thought I would look at dirt so lovingly.............LOL but after composting for 7 yrs and using it here and there throughout the gardens, it is wonderful. Your camellias and azaleas will love you if you put coffee grounds, tea bags on them........I try to remember this before heading to the compost pile. The pile looked so good the other day I almost took a picture but then said.........uhoh, you're going overboard!!!!!
and let us not forget egg shells - rich in calcium carbonate. I'll have to do some kitchen composting right away. If you are into manure, rabbit droppings have the highest nitrogen content - if only they didn't like to nibble on everything. hehehe
Gilz, next to bat guano, the rabbit poo is the highest in nitrogen. I'll admit after first moving to our country place, I actually scooped some up and put it in the veggie garden. Fortunately, we are secluded and no one could see me..............LOL. A note on egg shells, you can throw some down around your bird feeders and some birds will grab them........helps build calcium and stronger eggs for them.
About yellow leaves question.
I use nitrogen poroxide four table spoons in one gallon of water.
You will see the diffrence the next day.
Try it is so easy.