hi all, 1st year w/brugs and they all looked dark green when i put them out in the yard a month ago. started all of them from cuttings last year. i am fertilizing w/ the new miracle grow all purpose formulation (24-8-16) every 3 days and have supplemented w/ 1 tbls epsom salt once a week. u think it might be a ph issue as in nutrient lockout or insects maybe? any suggestions as to what to treat with? or am i just paranoid, haha?
YIPES! YELLOW LEAVES! what to do?
one of them
one of the better ones........didn't have yellow until yesterday
and purple streaks on the back of a leaf
What is the grey material under all the cuttings? Is it epsom salt? You might be overdoing it with the epsom salt, a source of magnesium. I've read of using epsom salt every once in a while, but too much magnesium can bind with nitrogen making it unavailble to the plant. It can also displace the calcium.
Quoting:
Calcium is also extremely important in the plant's cell strength. It affects the permeability of cell walls. Low permeability means higher osmotic pressure is needed to translocate nutrients and water in the plant. That spells more vulnerability to drought or high salt conditions in soil.
Much of the calcium in the plant is found in leaves and stem. Calcium thickens and strengthens leaves and stems, helping the plant resist disease and weather. Calcium is relatively immobile in the plant, although mobile in soil.
Calcium is also extremely important to a plant's production of proteins. If the calcium is low, the plant sap will be watery because excess nitrogen is pulling in water into the plant without a balance of other nutrients. Because nitrogen has an affinity for water, non-protein nitrogen in the grain will draw water and cause grain to go out of condition even if it's been dried below 15%. We've found that it takes less nitrogen per bushel of crop produced in a soil that has adequate calcium levels and proper calcium- magnesium balance....Calcium is also essential to help the plant build its chlorophyll, the carbohydrate-generation system called chloroplasts. And without that factory working property, the plant can't make adequate plant sugars. If you compare two plants both having a refractometer reading of 8 brix, the plant with adequate calcium will have a sweeter taste.
If that grey stuff is epsom salt, I suggest removing it. If the new leaves continue to turn yellow as they mature, you may have to dig the plants out, wash the soil out of the roots and replant in another area. It can take up to 18 months or longer for excess magnesium to leach out of the soil where the roots are so moving the plants is an option to consider.
Possibly this is just the older leaves reacting to the new environment - perhaps cooler and/or more brightly lit than where the plants were before you put them out. The younger leaves look fine. Ubnless there is a chemical problem as bettydee has suggested, I wouldn't worry (unless new growth fails).
It's the crazy weather this spring.
I'm sure your brugs will be just fine.
Alice
WOW Veronica, I didn't know all that. I am forever tossing handfuls of Epsom salts under my roses. They seem to thrive. I better slow down. LOL.
What is on your soil, Gardening 101a? Almost looks like salt buildup. Personally I would go buy a bag of steer manure mixed with compost and empty it under your brugs. People ask me how my yard is able to host so many plants, so crowded together but have them all so big and happy and full of color. I would have to say it is because I am forever amending my soil. I try to toss bags of steer manure with compost under everything at least twice a year. It is cheap and so easy to do and seems to really be the corner stone of a healthy garden.
And in the last few year I have been adding a lot of other stuff, but I always had big, fat plants even when I didn't and I really think it is because I have always tossed compost on my garden. And I just toss it, never have worked it in. I let nature do that. I am a lazy gardener!
Good luck!
Mixing steer manure with the compost seems like a good idea I'll have to try. What's the ratio of compost to steer manure? I'll pick up some steer manure next time I'm in town. I should have picked it off the pastures last year. Without rain, there was a lot of cured manure out there.
Oh Veronica, I just buy it at HD for about $1.09 a bag. They mix it. LOL. Or I get straight steer manure at Lowes for 99 cents I think it is. Yesterday I bought 3 bags of mango mulch but that stuff was $9 per 1 1/2 cubic ft so I have to decide what plant made me the happinest this month and deserves it.
Even when I repot my big brugs, I put in a lot of the cheap steer manure with the soil. So far so good.
wow, your HD prices are better than mine. The cow manure here is $1.49 per bag and at Lowes is it $1.99! Amazing, the difference. I bought 7 bags at HD a few days ago.. need to buy a couple more to use at my mothers.. going over ther to do some planting today.
Tammie
That soil looks like concrete or "road base" around your brugs Gardening101a... have you ever checked the PH? I thought concrete would affect the Ph..
LOL I used to drive truck.. I delivered "road base" it is rock & gravel mix that gets really hard when it sets..
Walmart has steer manure cheap... at least around here it is. I needed a truckload this year! LOL
that does look hard around your brug.... my walmart does not carry anything but about a dozen different types of potting soil. They take a whole portion of the parking lot to pile up palets to potting soil... no amendments, nothing but thousands of bags of potting soil. Hope everyone likes lots of potting soil... lots of choices of brands! LOL
Tammie