Ok. We’ve all been there. ”I have green and yellow plants,” you say, “and I’m Scared!“
First, Diagnose the Situation
In order to treat your yellowing plant we must first know, How is it yellowing?
- Are the oldest leaves turning yellow gradually, as if fading from green to yellow? And, if further along, finally moving to the newer growth?
- Are the leave throughout, yellowing on each leaf from the vein out?
- Are there little yellow dots forming on the leaves? If further along, are there webs and grainy dust at the bottom of your leaves?
Second, Treatment of green and yellow plants.
If you happen to be a victim of the first situation. Your plants oldest leaves are turning yellow while you still have green new growth. Later, your new growth will start to turn yellow also making your entire plant seem very sickly.
Green and Yellow plants = Nitrogen Deficiency!
While this may seem like a no-brainer. You may actually be giving your plants enough nitrogen they just may be locked up do to incorrect PH or possibly salt build-up in the soil. It is also possible, that you have added partially decomposed compost to your bed. This will in fact suck nitrogen from the soil, in order to aid in it’s decomposition.
There are some very easy fixes for problems like nitrogen Deficiency!
- First, thoroughly rinse your soil with 2-3 times the volume of soil worth of clean
Green and yellow plants mean you need a pH meter
water.
- Water with a High Nitrogen fertilizer, organic is preferred with edibles such as tomatoes, squash, herbs, and fruit. We like to use one such as Jobe’s Organic All Purpose.
- This is a great time to rinse down your foliage with clean water!!!
- Now spray your leaves down with a simple seaweed extract spray!
- If this problem persists, either transplant your plant into a larger container using new soil or Fertilize move heavily or more frequently, making sure to adjust the pH of the water.
Green and yellow plants=Potassium DEFICIENCY
The major eiffereence between this Nitrogen deficiency is that there are spots that will appear on the leaves. Also the yellowing will be much less noticeable early on.You are going to want to do the same things for above. This time make sure to use a good all around fertilizer.
Green AND yellow plants=Sulfur DEFICIENCY
Sulfur and Nitrogen deficiencies are often mistaken for each other. With a sulfur deficiency your young new growth will appear lime green and the yellowing will progres there are a ton of other nutrient defficiencies you could have. We will cover that in a later posting.
Green and yellow plants=spider mites
Cross your fingers you have a simle problem like nitrogen deficiency. Spider Mites, once established are extremely difficult to control. We go into depth about spider mites in our article Tetranychus Urticae.
Let it be said, if you have spider mites, fight hard and fast. If you get them on the run before they are set in you have a good chance of winning. If you wait, you will lose. No matter how hard you fight.
We will begin with an explination of how to examine your green and yellow plants for spider mites.
- Look under leaves. Do you see very, very, small clear dots. They will be in clusters
Spider mite and Eggs
normally on the lowest, deformed leaf.
- Also, do you see any extremely small dots moving around? If you see any combination of the 2 then you definetly have spider mites.
- Look between your branches and the main trunk. Do you see any webbing? It will be very fine, finer than normal spider web. This means that you probably have a moderate spider mite infestation.
- Look at the top of your plants. Do you see the webbing mention earlier? Do you see any of the very small dots mentioned before. If your plants are in this condition you have a serious spider mite infestation.
The Initial Treatment
If you see any of the signs mentioned you are going to want to act aggressively. You will want to start a regiment of neem oil, Azatrol, and Avid 0.15 EC or better yet Forbid 4F. You will want to spray will Avid, wait 3 days, spray neem oil. Wait 3 days, spray Azatrol. Wait 3 days spray Forbid 4F. This should knock down the spider mite infestation.
After the initial regiment, you should begin a regiment of Neem oil, wait 1 week then spray azatrol. You should also spray Avid or Forbid 4F no less than once every 45 days.
For other answers try our links
Tetranychus Urticae
Top Predator Insects for Indoor Gardens
